What for the future of the Jardine River Painted Turtle?

Abstract

The Painted Turtle Emydura subglobosa is widely distributed in southern Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya, where it inhabits the permanent freshwater swamps of adjacent coastal river systems (Lovich et al. 1983; Georges et al. 2006). Emydura subglobosa has also been recorded on mainland Australia, but only from the Jardine River in far northern Cape York Peninsula where it is colloquially named the Jardine River Painted Turtle (Cann 1998). The separation of these two disjunct populations is presumed to be due to Pleistocene sea level changes about 12,000?18,000 years BP (Georges and Thomson 2006). The taxonomic affinities of this species complex remain unresolved (Georges and Adams 1996).