Elseya uberrima


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 as follows:
  • Elseya uberrima
  • *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 genus name Pelocomastes a junior synonym of Elseya and in their recent revision of that genus Thomson et al. resurrected Pelocomastes as a subgenus to represent the Queensland clade of the Elseya. Therefore, Elseya ''uberrima is the type species for this subgenus.
image:Uberima.gif|frame|center|middle|alt=A) Lectotype of Elseya uberrima; B) Lectotype of Elseya arata; C-D) dorsal and ventral views of the lectotype of Pelocomastes ampla.|A) Lectotype of Elseya uberrima; B) lectotype of Elseya arata; C-D) dorsal and ventral views of the lectotype of Pelocomastes ampla''.