Sexual dimorphism, deformations, and epibionts of Phrynops tuberosus (Testudines, Chelidae)

Abstract

Studies focusing on the natural history of species are essential for developing effective conservation measures and evaluating ecological hypotheses. To this end, we describe natural history data of the Cotinga River toadhead turtle, Phrynops tuberosus, in the Banabuiú River in Ceará, Brazil, and evaluated sexual dimorphism, epibionts, and mutilation effects. We hand-captured 134 individuals by snorkeling, over a period of one year, resulting in the capture of 94 males, 24 females, and 16 juveniles. Females had larger head width and body mass than males, while males had longer tail length. One quarter of the turtles captured had some sort of injury or deformation, most common injuries being missing claws, mutilations, and shell deformations. We found no difference in body condition index between mutilated and non-mutilated animals. Mollusks, insects, and leeches were found as epibionts on P. tuberosus and most of the captured turtles had extensive algal cover. Future studies should focus on understanding the effect of mutilations on animal fitness and reproductive success.

Ecology of Phrynops geoffroanus and Mesoclemmys tuberculata (Testudines: Chelidae) in Climatically Distinct Areas of the Semi-Arid Caatinga and Atlantic Forest in Northeast Brazil

“…Similar patterns have been verified for several Chelidae species (Cann 1998; Garbin et al 2016), including P. geoffroanus (Molina 1998). The length of the smallest adult P. geoffroanus and M. tuberculata individuals were similar to that described by Rodrigues and Silva (2016) in Phrynops tuberosus from Caatinga in Ceará State, northeast Brazil.…”

“…The sex ratio recorded for P. geoffroanus and M. tuberculata did not significantly differ from 1:1, which is similar to that found in many other studies, such as in P. geoffroanus in the Atlantic Forest (Souza and Abe 2001) and Caatinga (Moura et al 2015; Abrantes et al 2021). The occurrence of a higher proportion of males is rare in other Chelidae, but recorded to occur in P. tuberosus in Caatinga (Rodrigues and Silva 2016). There are also studies reporting a skewed sex ratio for females, such as in Mesoclemmys vanderhaegei in the Cerrado (Brito et al 2009), and the only recorded sex ratio for M. tuberculata (Moura et al 2015) was registered only for females.…”

Zootherapeutic uses of wildmeat and associated products in the semiarid region of Brazil: general aspects and challenges for conservation

“…In order to determine which taxa, in general terms, provide the most potential biomass for use as source of medicinal products, we defined the average body weight of the exploited species using the following reliable sources for amphibians [ 39 ], reptiles [ 39 – 43 ], birds [ 32 , 33 ], and mammals [ 44 , 45 ]. As several times we only had access to by-parts of wild animals, literature data were the only way to obtain the weight of target species.…”

Estado sanitario de tortugas dulceacuícolas de la familia <i>Chelidae</i> en arroyos pampásicos de llanura y serranos con distinto impacto de contaminación

“…La epibiosis ha sido bien documentada para varias especies de tortugas dulceacuícolas (Edgren et al 1953, Gibbons 1968, Ryan y Lambert 2005, Garbary et al 2007, Burgin y Betts 2012, Akgul et al 2014, Ersanli y Gonulol 2014, Bury et al 2015, Rodrigues y Silva 2015, Wu y Bergey 2017. Entre los grupos epizoicos mejor representados se encuentran las algas (el género más común es Basicladia aunque hay más de 60 taxones diferentes registrados) y los hirudíneos tanto ectocomensales como ectoparásitos.…”