Common Snapping Turtle

Chelydra osceola Stejneger, 1918

[= Chelydra serpentina osceola Stejneger, 1918; fide, Babcock, 1933[1932]:874, Feuer, 1971:380, Gibbons et al., 1988:400.2]

Stejneger, 1918, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 31(26):89.

Holotype: USNM 10369 (alcoholic adult male, CL “231 mm”), collected by S. T. Walker, Sept 1879.

Type Locality: “Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida.”

Paratypes: USNM 28761 (juvenile shell and partial skeleton, sex unknown, CL 149 mm), Kissimmee River, Florida, collected by Edgar A. Mearns, 3 Mar 1901; USNM 29208 (alcoholic juvenile, CL 121 mm), Alligator Bluff, Kissimmee River, Osceola County, Florida, collected by Edgar A. Mearns, 24 Apr 1901; USNM 30013 (dry, stuffed adult female, CL 314 mm), same locality and collector data as USNM 29208, collection date unknown, cataloged 21 Apr 1902; USNM 55317 (adult shell, sex unknown, CL 241 mm), Vero Beach, Indian River County, Florida, collected by Isaac M. Weills, 14 Mar 1915; USNM 60545 (dry, stuffed adult male and partial postcranial skeleton with alcoholic tail, CL 204 mm), Auburndale, Polk County, Florida, collected by Nelson R. Wood, 1918; USNM 60546 (dry, stuffed adult female and partial postcranial skeleton with alcoholic tail, CL 204 mm), same locality and collection data as USNM 60545; USNM 60557 (alcoholic adult female, CL 168 mm), same locality and collector data as USNM 60545, Mar 1918.

Etymology: The name osceola is for Osceola County, Florida.

Remarks: According to the catalog annotation, USNM 29208 was an “ad. female with clutch of 26 spherical eggs averaging 28.7 mm diam.” This notation must be in error because USNM 29208 is a juvenile that measures CL 121 mm. A note in the catalog indicates that paratype USNM 30013 (CL 314 mm) had “just deposited eggs.” The original catalog entry for paratype USNM 55317 is “Vero, Florida”; Vero, then in Brevard County, later had its name changed to Vero Beach and is currently in Indian River County. Stejneger (1918) referred only to the holotype by catalog number in the original description, but he discussed seven additional Florida specimens that make up the paratype series.

FAMILY DERMATEMYIDAE