Elseya uberrima

Elseya uberrima; Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Pleurodira
Family:	Chelidae
Genus:	Elseya
Subgenus:	Pelocomastes
Species:	E. uberrima
Binomial name
	Elseya uberrima; (De Vis, 1897)

Elseya uberrima is a Pliocene species of extinct Australian snapping turtle.

Taxonomy

During his time at the Queensland Museum, Charles Walter De Vis described a number of fossil turtles from the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. All four species described were declared a single diagnosable species by Thomson, 2000.

To avoid confusion, the synonymy for the species is:

Elseya uberrima (De Vis, 1897)
- Chelymys uberrima De Vis, 1897: 3
- Chelymys antiqua De Vis 1897: 4
- Chelymys arata De Vis 1897: 5
- Pelocomastes ampla De Vis 1897: 6–7

This synonymy has made the generic name Pelocomastes a junior synonym of Elseya, and in their recent revision of that genus, Thomson et al. (2015) resurrected Pelocomastes as a subgenus to represent the Queensland clade of the Elseya. Therefore, Elseya (Pelocomastes) uberrima is the type species for this subgenus.

A) Lectotype of E. uberrima; B) Lectotype of E. arata; C-D) dorsal and ventral views of the lectotype of Pelocomastes ampla. — A) Lectotype of *E. uberrima*; B) lectotype of *E. arata*; C-D) dorsal and ventral views of the lectotype of *P. ampla*

References

1 2 Thomson SA. 2000. A Revision of the Fossil Chelid Turtles (Pleurodira) Described by C.W. De Vis, 1897. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 45 (2): 593–598. (Brisbane).
↑ De Vis CW. 1897. The extinct freshwater turtles of Queensland. Annals of the Queensland Museum 3: 3–7.
↑ Thomson, S., Amepou, Y., Anamiato, J. & Georges, A. 2015. A new species and subgenus of Elseya (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) from New Guinea. Zootaxa 4006(1):59–82. Preview (PDF)

[Th1-1] 1 2 Thomson SA. 2000. A Revision of the Fossil Chelid Turtles (Pleurodira) Described by C.W. De Vis, 1897. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 45 (2): 593–598. (Brisbane).

[dev-2] De Vis CW. 1897. The extinct freshwater turtles of Queensland. Annals of the Queensland Museum 3: 3–7.

[thom15-3] Thomson, S., Amepou, Y., Anamiato, J. & Georges, A. 2015. A new species and subgenus of Elseya (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) from New Guinea. Zootaxa 4006(1):59–82. Preview (PDF)