SPECIES RICHNESS MAPS OF THE

SPECIES RICHNESS MAPS OF THE

FRESHWATER AND TERRESTRIAL TURTLES OF THE WORLD

JOHN B. IVERSON Department of Biology

Earlham College

SMITHSONIAN

HERPETOLOGICAL INFORMATION SERVICE

NO. 88

1992

SMITHSONIAN HERPETOLOGICAL

INFORMATION SERVICE

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INTRODUCTION

With

the publication of

my

turtlechecklist (Iverson, 1986) it

was

^finally possible to begin preliminary analyses ofthe patternsand correlatesof species richness in turtles

on

a global scale.

As

a first step I prepared species density

maps

for each turtle family

by

outlining the range of each turtle species as plotted in Iverson (1986), and

manually

overlaying thoserange

maps

^toproduce species richness isopleth (= species density)maps.

This

was

undertaken with theclear realization thatthe

taxonomy

and distributionofturtles in

some

areas ofthe world

was

still not well studied (especially southeastAsia), but that general patterns of species density

would

not change radically even with

much

further study.

The

species density

maps

that were generated revealed a

number

ofinteresting

zoogeographic

patterns, and stimulated a pilot study of the correlates of

maximum

freshwater

and

terrestrial turtle species density in

42

river basins across five continents (Iverson, 1991).

However,

because ofjournal space limitations, it

was

not possible to publishthe speciesdensity

maps

along withthat analysis.

Those maps

arereproduced here in

hope

ofstimulating further analyses of the distribution and

zoogeography

of turtles.

The maps

appearin the

same

orderas the taxaappeared in Iverson (1986).

LITERATURE CITED

Iverson, J. B. 1986. Checklist with Distribution

Maps

oftheTurtles ofthe World.

Iverson Publ.,

Richmond,

Indiana.

Iverson, J. B. 1991. Global correlates ofspecies richness in turtles. Herpetol. J. (in press)

Fig. 1. Species richnessofthe family Carettochelyidae on

New Guinea

and Northern Australia.

Fig. 2. Species richness ofthe familyChelydridae

on

Northand CentralAmerica.

Fig. 3. Species richness ofthe familyChelydridae _Fig. 4. Speciesrichness ofthe family

Dermatemydidae

on

northwestern South America.

on Mexico

and Central America.

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D

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Fig. 6. Species richness ofthe subfamily Batagurinae ^(family

Emydidae)

on Central America.

Fig. 7. Speciesrichnessof thesubfamily Batagurinae ^(family

Emydidae) on

South America.

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o

•o

V

Fig. 9. Species richness ofthe subfamily

Emydinae

(family

Emydidae) on

North and CentralAmerica, excluding thebox turtlegenus Terrapene and the salt

marsh

terrapingenusMalaclemys (see Fig. 10).

Fig. _10. Speciesrichnessofthe box turtlesofthe genus Terrapene andthesalt

marsh

terrapin of thegenus

Malaclemys

(subfamily Emydinae; family

Emydidae)

on North

America

(see Fig 9)

Dotted line parallels thecoastline alongwhich a single speciesof

Malaclemys

occurs

Fig. 11. Species richnessofthesubfamily

Emydinae

(family

Emydidae)

on northernSouth America.

Fig. 12. Species richnessofthe family Kinosternidae on North andCentral America.

Fig. 13. Species richnessofthefamily Kinosternidae

on

South America.

Fig. 14. Speciesrichness ofthe family Platysternidae

on

Asia.

10

Fig. 15. Species richness ofthefamily Testudinidae on^Africa.

11

Fig. 16. Species richnessofthe family Testudinidae

on

Asia.

n h

12

Fig. 18. Speciesrichnessofthe family Testudinidae on North America.

Fig. 19. Speciesrichness ofthefamily Testudinidae on South America,excluding the Galapagos Islands

where

species richnessnever exceeds one.

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c

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c

o

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c

C/3

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oh

14

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15

Fig. 23. SpeciesrichnessofthefamilyTrionychidaeonAfrica.

Fig. 24. Speciesrichnessofthe family Trionychidae on North America.

16

Fig. 25. Speciesrichnessofthe family Chelidae on South America.

17

Fig. 26. Species richness ofthe familyChelidae

on

Australia.

18

Fig. 27. Species richness ofthe family Pelomedusidae

on

South America.

Fig. 28. Speciesrichnessofthe familyPelomedusidae

on

Africa.