Testudines: Chelidae) of Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 134, 401–421. With 7 figures Electrophoretic delineation of species boundaries within the genus Chelodina (Testudines: Chelidae) of Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia ARTHUR GEORGES1*, MARK ADAMS2 and WILLIAM McCORD3 1Applied Ecology Research Group, University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia 2Evolutionary Biology Unit, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia 3East Fishkill Animal Hospital, 285 Rt 82, Hopewell Junction NY 12533, USA Received February 2001; revised and accepted for publication June 2001 A total of 281 specimens of long-necked chelid turtles (Chelodina) were obtained from drainages of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the island of Roti in Indonesia. Ten diagnosable taxa were identified using allozyme profiles at 45 presumptive loci. Chelodina expansa, C. parkeri, C. rugosa and C. burrungandjii are in a Group A clade, C. longi- collis, C. novaeguineae, C. steindachneri, C. pritchardi and C. mccordi are in a Group B clade, and C. oblonga is in a monotypic Group C clade, with each clade thought to represent a distinct subgenus. Chelodina siebenrocki is syn- onymised with C. rugosa. An eleventh taxon, C. reimanni, could not be distinguished from C. novaeguineae on the basis of allozyme profiles, but it is morphologically distinct. Its status is therefore worthy of further investigation. Three instances of natural hybridization were detected. Chelodina rugosa and C. novaeguineae hybridize in the Gulf country of Queensland, with evidence of backcrossing to C. novaeguineae. Chelodina longicollis and C. novaeguineae hybridize in central coastal Queensland, and C. rugosa and C. burrungandjii hybridize along their zone of contact in the plateau escarpment streams and pools.
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