Dermatemys mawii Gray 1847 – Central American River Turtle, Tortuga Blanca, Hickatee

Abstract

suMMaRy. -The Central American River Turtle, Dermatemys mawii, the single remaining extant species of the formerly wide-spread primitive family Dermatemydidae, is restricted to the Atlantic drainages of southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. This large, highly aquatic, and totally herbivorous freshwater turtle is severely threatened throughout its range. There are older accounts citing specimens over 20 kg and carapace length of 60 cm, but recent field studies have found few individuals in excess of 14 kg in Mexico or above 11 kg in Guatemala. The turtle's large size and highly palatable meat yield a high profit when the animals are sold at market. This has motivated hunters to overharvest many populations into extirpation. Although Dermatemys is consumed year-round, exploitation peaks during dry weather when low water levels facilitate capture. All forms of capture tend to select for larger size classes, thus not only reducing densities, but altering population structures, resulting in lower proportions of reproductively mature animals. The maturing cohort of smaller juveniles that remains is usually soon removed as well, resulting in unproductive populations in decline. Since Dermatemys is an herbivorous species and grows relatively fast, there is the possibility of raising this species in captivity or semicaptivity in polyculture systems with freshwater shrimp or ornamental fish. Even fast turtle growth rates would probably translate to a relatively slow cash return, suggesting that Dermatemys perhaps be a complementary species in a polyculture system. Where the capital and interest are sufficient, detailed and well-documented experiments testing the overall feasibility of these schemes are advised. However, captive propagation efforts should not distract critical funds and attention from the maintenance of wild stocks in their native habitats. Law enforcement is not the aswer to maintaining wild stocks, and habitat destruction by itself is not the problem-unless local people change their ways and stop eating or selling every Dermatemys they can, there is little chance of rehabilitating wild populations.

Disentangling the correlated evolution of body size, life history, and ontogeny in miniaturized chelydroid turtles

“…This critical growth‐dominated window influences variation in hatchling body size (Andrews, 2004). To address this expectation, data on average egg mass and hatchling CL were referenced (Cordero & Quinteros, 2015; Ewert, 1979, 1985; Flores‐Villela & Zug, 1995; Goode, 1994; Iverson & Ewert, 1991; Iverson & Vogt, 2011; Ligon & Lovern, 2009; Miller, 1985; Vogt et al, 2011) (Tables ).…”

Digestive proteases and in vitro protein digestibility of feed ingredients for the Central American river turtle, Dermatemys mawii

“…The Central American river turtle (Dermatemys mawii) is an endemic species distributed through Mexico, Belize and Guatemala (Vogt, Polisar, Moll, & Gonzalez-Porter, 2011). This turtle is a critically endangered species according to IUCN (Vogt, Gonzalez-Porter, & Van Dijk, 2006) and Mexican laws (SEMARNAT, 2010), and it is considered to be one of the 25 most endangered chelonian species in the world (Rhodin et al, 2011).…”

“…It lays three to four clutches per season, and the mean clutch size is 10.98 ± 3.68 eggs. The egg incubation period varies from 115 to 300 days, and also present embryogenic diapause and embryogenic estivation (Vogt et al., ).…”

A morphological description of Baptemys wyomingensis and an analysis of its phylogenetic relationship within Kinosternoidea

“…These results can be used to look at the evolution of the shell and potentially to explore both speciation and environmental impacts. For example, D. mawii individuals that mature in slow moving water reach maturity at larger sizes than individuals in fast-moving water (Vogt et al 2011), and recent molecular work on extant D. mawii from different river basins note that there may be species-level variation.…”

“…The removal of the majority of the genera from Dermatemydidae has caused and continues to cause confusion in the literature because the biogeographic distribution, the geologic range (Hutchison 1982;Hutchison 1998;Hutchison and Archibald 1986), and morphological synapomorphies of Dermatemydidae are now different. This distinction has not yet been realized or accepted by all, and some papers continue to refer to the Dermatemydidae in the old, non-monophyletic context (Vogt et al 2011).…”