Tunisian tortoise

Tunisian tortoise
Testudo graeca nabeulensis at Cap Bon, Tunisia
Testudo graeca nabeulensis at Cap Bon, Tunisia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Superfamily: Testudinoidea
Family: Testudinidae
Genus: Testudo
Species:
T. graeca
Subspecies:
T. g. nabeulensis
Trinomial name
Testudo graeca nabeulensis
Highfield, 1990[1]
Synonyms

The Tunisian tortoise or Nabeul tortoise (Testudo graeca nabeulensis) is a subspecies of Greek tortoises. It was originally described as a new species in 1990, and even placed in a distinct genus. The spur-thighed or "Greek" tortoises are usually collectively referred to as Testudo graeca, but this covers a wide variety of subspecies that have very different ecological and morphological characteristics and appear to comprise at least three phylogenetic lineages.[2] As its name implies, it is found in Tunisia and nearby Algeria.

  1. ^ a b c Rhodin, Anders G.J.; van Dijk, Peter Paul; Inverson, John B.; Shaffer, H. Bradley (2010). "Turtles of the World 2010 Update: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution and Conservation Status" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17.
  2. ^ van der Kuyl, Antoinette C.; Ballasina, Donato L. Ph. & Zorgdrager, Fokla (2005): Mitochondrial haplotype diversity in the tortoise species Testudo graeca from North Africa and the Middle East. BMC Evol. Biol. 5: 29. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-5-29 (HTML/PDF fulltext + supplementary material)