Geochelone

Geochelone; Temporal range: Miocene to present
	G. elegans
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Testudinidae
Genus:	Geochelone; Fitzinger, 1835
Species
	G. elegans; G. platynota

Geochelone tortoises, which are also known as typical tortoises or terrestrial turtles, can be found in southern Asia. They primarily eat plants.

Geochelone is a genus of tortoises.

The genus consists of two extant species:

Indian star tortoise (G. elegans)
Burmese star tortoise (G. platynota)

A number of tortoise species have been recently removed from the genus. This taxon as formerly defined was "polyphyletic, representing at least five independent clades".[1] Tortoises removed include members of Aldabrachelys (from the Seychelles and Madagascar), Astrochelys[2] (Madagascar), Chelonoidis (South America and the Galápagos Islands), Stigmochelys[2] and Centrochelys (Africa), and the extinct Megalochelys (southern Asia).

"Self-righting" shell

The form of the shell of the Indian star tortoise resembles a gömböc, allowing it to turn over when lying upside down very easily.

gollark: It said "DCC CHAT connect attempt to citrons failed (No route to host)".

gollark: Maybe they've heard of the experiment by now.

gollark: Hmm, mysterious.

gollark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

gollark: There was the milgram obedience experiment or whatever it is. Humans love our conformity.

References

Le, M.; Raxworthy, C. J.; McCord, W. P.; Mertz, L. (2006-05-05). "A molecular phylogeny of tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40 (2): 517–531. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.03.003. PMID 16678445. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-16.
Fritz, U.; Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P. (2007-07-03). "When genes meet nomenclature: Tortoise phylogeny and the shifting generic concepts of Testudo and Geochelone". Zoology. Elsevier. 110 (4): 298–307. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2007.02.003. PMID 17611092.

Geochelone Report in Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved January 12, 2008.

External links

Chaco tortoise media from ARKive
Care tips

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Le_et_al.-1] Le, M.; Raxworthy, C. J.; McCord, W. P.; Mertz, L. (2006-05-05). "A molecular phylogeny of tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40 (2): 517–531. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.03.003. PMID 16678445. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-16.

[Fritz-2] Fritz, U.; Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P. (2007-07-03). "When genes meet nomenclature: Tortoise phylogeny and the shifting generic concepts of Testudo and Geochelone". Zoology. Elsevier. 110 (4): 298–307. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2007.02.003. PMID 17611092.