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Read Ebook: A New Tortoise Genus Gopherus From North-central Mexico by Legler John M
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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Volume 11, No. 5, pp. 335-343, pls. 7 and 8 April 24, 1959
A New Tortoise, Genus Gopherus, From North-central Mexico
JOHN M. LEGLER
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1959
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Robert W. Wilson
Volume 11, No. 5, pp. 335-343 Published April 24, 1959
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED IN THE STATE PRINTING PLANT TOPEKA, KANSAS 1959
A New Tortoise, Genus Gopherus, From North-central Mexico
JOHN M. LEGLER
Gopherus flavomarginatus new species
Carapace low, evenly arched or slightly flat-topped in cross section, its height slightly more than 50 per cent of its length; top of carapace, between highest parts of first and fourth central laminae, more or less flat in profile; carapace flared, wider posteriorly than anteriorly; central laminae all broader than long, the first not narrower posteriorly than anteriorly; plastron deeply notched behind, the inner margins of the notch straight, neither convex nor concave; gular projections truncate having no notch or but a shallow notch between them; greatest combined width of gular laminae much greater than greatest length; interlaminal length of gular greater than that of humeral; one large axillary scute on each side, approximately rectangular but slightly wider below than above; one or two inguinal scutes on each side, the anterior roughly triangular and much larger than posterior.
Anterior surface of antebrachium having enlarged, juxtaposed , osteodermal scales arranged in seven to eight longitudinal rows, each scale yellowish with a black or dark brown center; scales on lateral edge of antebrachium, from fifth claw to elbow, ten in number and darker than other antebrachial scales; two enlarged black-tipped, yellow spurs on posterior surface of thigh, inner spur approximately half the size of outer. Head relatively wide, greatest width of skull slightly more than 80 per cent of condylobasilar length; width of head 1.3 to 1.7 times diameter of hind foot; scales on top of head large but irregularly arranged .
TABLE 1. Measurements, in Millimeters, of the Holotype and Paratypes of Gopherus Flavomarginatus New Species
TABLE 2. Bodily Proportions in the Known Species of Gopherus. Two Specimens of G. polyphemus from Harmon, Mississippi , Are Considered Separately Because of Their Notably Narrower Heads. The Size of Each Sample Is Given in Parentheses Above the Average; Extremes Are in Parentheses Following the Averages.
Mr. Charles M. Bogert recently related to me two stories that are here worthy of note. One of them, which Bogert learned from the late Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, concerns a collector who was sent by the Chicago Natural History Museum to Coahuila in the early part of the century to obtain materials for a desert exhibit. When the exhibit had been completed several decades later, the collector, visiting the museum, inquired as to where the large tortoises were that he had collected in Coahuila. Dr. Schmidt could find no record of such tortoises and suggested that possibly they had been confused with Galapagos tortoises . Dr. Robert F. Inger is unable to locate the specimens or add anything to the story. The collector stated that the large tortoises had been found in only one bolson in Coahuila.
Mr. Bogert further related that, in 1946 when he was camped at Las Delicias, Coahuila, a Mexican mule herder told him of seeing a large tortoise "three bolsons north" of the bolson in which Las Delicias is located . The man awoke one morning to find his saddle missing; following tracks from the place where the saddle had been left, the man eventually found it on the back of a large tortoise. The tortoise had apparently sought shelter beneath the saddle and, finding it unsatisfactory, had walked away with the saddle on his back.
LITERATURE CITED
CARR, A.
DUGES, A.
FENNEMAN, N. M.
MILLER, L.
SMITH, H. M.
THAYER, W. N.
WOODBURY, A. M., and HARDY, R.
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