Diagnosis of living and fossil short-necked turtles of the genus Elseya using skeletal morphology

Abstract

The broad aim of my thesis is to delimit and diagnose species of the genus Elseya, agenus once thought to only have a few widely distributed species, including resolving of the reported paraphyly with respect to Emydura (Legler, 1981; Georges and Adams, 1992). More specifically, my objectives were to identify and describe characters that can be used as apomorphies to define the relationships between the species and genera; to diagnose and describe living and fossil species and revise existing descriptions; to name selected species and genera with descriptions and diagnoses in accordance with current taxonomic practices; and to develop keys and synonymies that are in accordance with demonstrated relationships between the species of Australian Chelids.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Supervisor	Arthur GEORGES (Supervisor) & Stephen Sarre (Supervisor)