The Status of the Florida Snapping Turtle Chelydra osceola Stejneger

Abstract

S TEJNEGER (1918) described from Pinellas County, Florida, a new species of snapping turtle, Chelydra ocseola, distinguished from northern Chelydra serpentina as follows: Diagnosis-Similar to Chelydra serpentina, but central laminae of carapace relatively much wider, width of third central being one-third the length of the five centrals together, or more; knobs of dorsal keels located nearer center of laminae; four small chin barbels. Babcock (1932) concluded that osceola did not warrant full specific rank, because the characters used by Stejneger to distinguish osceola came within the range of variability of serpentina. Rust (1934) listed osceola as a subspecies of serpentina, a usage followed in the current check lists (Schmidt, 1953; Mertens and Wermuth, 1955). Pope (1939) did not mention osceola, although he figured a young one (P1. 21, opp. p. 82) as Chelydra serpentina serpentina. Carr (1952) summed up the current status of the Florida snapping turtle by terming it a weakly differentiated subspecies.9 This review of the status of C. osceola is