REPTILIA: TESTUDINES: CARETTOCHELYIDAE CARETTOCHELYS INSCULPTA This is a species account on the Carettochelys insculpta or also known as the Fly River turtle or the Pig-nosed turtle

REPTILIA: TESTUDINES: CARETTOCHELYIDAE CARETTOCHELYS INSCULPTA______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Catalogue of Ameri end Amphibians and Reptiles. Amelingmeier, Amber. 2008. C atomic turn 18ttochelys insculpta. C atomic number 18ttochelys insculptaFly River capsize, the Pig-nosed capsize. C bettochelys insculpta. Ramsay,1886. Content. Is the w fix surviving member of its genus and the family C atomic number 18ttochelyidae (IUCN 2004). ?Definition. C arttochelys insculpta is a moderately large aquatic turtle that can get ahead up to 60 cm in buckler distance and up to 22.5 kg in weight. Instead of scutes, the scale is cover with a leathery skin and is sex actly deep. A medial keel is act towards the back of the case. The peripheral b wholenesss are complete and expand up-developed, so there is no flexible compositors case adjustment? (Georges & Rose 1993). The color whee ls from unknow grey through with(predicate) olive-grey to browned. The hatchlings in addition posses a small moveed projecting focus keel and a jagged margin on the sides of the carapace. The expose number part of the head is grey that has a observably lily-white take be hind(prenominal) the look. The spot from prison term to time gets paler with mature and may seem to be inexistent. An different spot can be found on the underside of the chin up which is very much darker than the spot found on the Carettochelys insculpta?s head. The chin itself also has a cream to light brown color. The jaws are declamatory with a strong grip. The tongue is pick apart and fleshy and the eyes retain a downcast scholarly person and a b need iris with a dark blue edge. One early(a) distinguishing feature of the turtles head is its prominent nose. A soft, trunk-like snout with two large openings at the end has effrontery the turtles its name: Pig-Nosed capsize (Ernst & Barbour, 1989). foresee: Distri exclusivelyion of ! the Carettochelys insculpta. Link: http://www.chelodina.com/Map_australasia_carettochelys.jpgFIGURE. A represent of a Carettochelys insculpta that has its head retracted into its carapace. Link: http://www.australianportraits.com/aquarium/topics/creatures/tortoises/images/pic55.jpg?Breeding. informal due date in males is reached after 14-16 years having a carapace length of round 30cm. Females reach sexual maturity date later (20-22 years), by that time the females shake off reached a carapace length of 30-34cm. The commenceth rate before maturity is estimated to well-nigh 15 years for pig it-nosed turtles from the Daly River. ?This is the time needed for a hatchling to grow from 15mm to 300mm? (Cann 1998). inside Australia and rising ginzo the Carettochelys insculpta?s clasp are deposited during the dry date from July to October. Females rate up to two clutches per year, normally confineing 7 to 19 eggs. The females lay eggs only every certify year, skipping a year between clutches. The nut are lay at night within arenaceous grounds. Unlike leatherneck turtles, Carettochelys insculpta does not use the front flippers in nesting; instead the hind limbs are used. Females come ashore one at a time to explore the nesting area. They return to the piddle after a short time. This is repeated by otherwise females and only demonstrate holes are dug, abandoned after a short time. consequently the females come ashore actually to lay their eggs which are 50cm to 5m above water level and the hole being about 22 cm in deep. It placid isn?t known why such large animals that have almost no terrestrial predators show such timid behavior (Georges A.,Doody S.,Young J., Cann J. 2000). ?dieting: Carettochelys insculpta are opportunistic executeers, largely omnivorous, but tend to bear a higher ratio of herbivore food. They feed on fruits, flowers, leaves and grow off of the riverbank vegetations. The fruits of figs and pandanus that ruination into th e water are regularly eaten. The pig-nosed favorite f! ood period is the ribbon mass (Valisneria spiralis) which grows in the water. Carettochelys insculpta also eat crustaceans, insects, larvae, and fish. A large range and amount of food is found end-to-end the rainy oceanson, when vast majority of the habitats are flooded (Groombridge, 1982). FIGURE: Picture interpreted of Carettochelys insculpta two hours after hatching. Note that the borderline scutes are already flat. Link: http://www.carettochelys.com/literature/visser_2005_2.htm? dispersion. The distribution of the Carettochelys insculpta is limited to lowland Papua New Guinea (New Guinea and the Indonesian province Irian Jaya) and Northern Australia (Georges & Kennett 1989). ? Habitat. The Pig-nosed turtle likes to occupy bodies of water that contain water year round such as bigger bays, estuaries and rivers especially large wholes and lagoons on river systems. Most Pig-nosed turtles have been seen within waterways having sand and gravel bottoms cover with silt, with an ave raging depth of six feet. These waterways are normally abundant with trees. Carettochelys insculpta have been known to venture into coastal waters to forage for food (Bargeron, M. 1997). ?Fossil Record. Miocene epoch (Glaessner, 1942). ?Nomenclatural score. Analyzing cladistic analysis of both the morphological and molecular characteristics have placed the Carettochelyidae as a close relative to the Trionychidae, the soft-shelled turtles. The skeletal characters that had identified the carettochelyids and trionychids as a monophyletic group had consisted of the total of the left and right premaxillae, lack of junction between the carapace and plastron, and three or less(prenominal) clawed digits. The Carettochelys insculpta was initially described as a Pleurodire (Ramsay, 1886) and had tell to be among both the freshwater turtles and the sea turtles (Ramsay, 1886). The genus was then given to a new family, the Carettochelyidae (Boulenger, 1887) and Baur (1891) was the one who had go Carettochelys, as well as the family Carettoc! helyidae, into the Cryptodires. Baur had also brought up the similarities to the Trionychia (Meylan, 1987; Meylan and Gaffney, 1989; Shaffer et al., 1997). nonetheless recent contractable evidence suggests that Trionychoidea is an invalid group, and that Trionychoidae is a distinctive lineage that recess off very early from other turtle (Krenz et al 2005)Literature CitedAnders G.J. Rhodin, Vagi R. Genorupa (1999). saving Status of Freshwater overturns in Papua New GuineaAsian Turtle Trade, Chelonian Research Foundation, page 129-136Bargeron, M. 1997. The pig nose turtle, Tortuga Gazette, tidy sum 33, No.3Baur, G. 1891. On the relations of Carettochelys, Ramsay. American raw(a)ist 25:631-639. Cann, John, 1978. Tortoises of Australia. black Angus and Robertson Publishers, Sydney, Australia. Cann, John,1998.Australian Freshwater Turtles, Beauworth Publishing Ltd,SingaporeErnst, Carl H. and Roger W. Barbour, 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian invention Press, Washington DC . Frair, W (1985).The ambiguous plateless river turtle, Carettochelys, in serological survey, ledger of Herpetology, Vol.19, No.4, pp 515-523Georges A. (1987).The pig nose turtle Warradjan, Australian Natural History, Vol.22, No.5Georges, Arthur and Kennett, Rodney. 1989. Dry-season Distribution and Ecology of Carettochelys insculpta (Chelonia : Carettochelydidae) in Kakadu depicted object Park, Northern Australia. Aust. Wildl. Res., 16, 323-35Georges, Arthur and discoloration Rose, 1993. Conservation biology of the pig-nosed turtle. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 1: 3-12, 1993Georges A.,Doody S.,Young J., Cann J. (2000)The Australian Pig-Nosed Turtle. Robey, CanberraGlaessner M. F. 1942. The occurrence of the New Guinea turtle (Carettochelys) in the Miocene of Papua. Rec. Aust. Mus. 21:106?109. Groombridge, B. 1982. I.U.C.N. Amphibia-Reptilia expiration Data Book. wear out 1. Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia. I.U.C.N. Publ., Gland, Switzerland. IUCN (2004): 2004 IU CN Red List of Threatened Species. Krenz, James G. et! al. 2005. molecular(a) phylogenetics and phylogenesis of turtles. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37, 178?191. Meylan, P. A. 1987. The phylogenetic relationships of soft-shelled turtles (Family Trionychidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 186:1-101. Meylan, P. A., and E. S. Gaffney. 1989. The skeletal morphology of the Cretaceous turtle, Adocus, and the relationships among the Trionychoidea. American Museum Novitates 2941:1-60. Shaffer, H. B., P. Meylan, and M. L. McKnight. 1997. Tests of turtle organic evolution: molecular, morphological, and paleontological approaches. Systematic Biology6:235-268. Webb, G.J.W. et all, (1986). Nest, eggs and embryonic learning of Carettochelys insculpta (Chelonia: Charettochelidae) from blue Australia. J. Zool. London, 1B:521-550________________________________________________Amber Amelingmeier, undergrad at Messiah College, Grantham PA. Working on knight bachelor?s degree in Biology and a churl in Environmental Scie nce. _________________________________________________ If you want to get a plentiful essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: cheap essay