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Reptilia    Testudines    Testudinidae  
Gopher Tortoise
Gopherus polyphemus (Daudin, 1802)
GOH-fer-us — PAWL-ee-FEE-mus
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 22,797 Total; 2,900 Museum; 19,897 Other

The locality database contains 8,248,810 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi South Carolina

Taxonomic Etymology:
The name honors the tortoise's burrowing behavior and alludes to the mythical Cyclops Polyphemus —likely referencing its strong, solitary, and somewhat primitive appearance.
Gopherus — Refers to its burrowing behavior, like that of a gopher. Latinized with -us to form a standard masculine genus name
polyphemus — From Polyphemus (Greek: Πολύφημος), the Cyclops from Homer’s Odyssey. Polyphemus was a large, primitive, solitary figure—attributes metaphorically applied to the gopher tortoise:

First instance(s) of published English names:
Gopher (Testudo gopher: Gray, John E. 1856. Catalogue of shield reptiles in the collection of the British Museum. Part I. Testudinata (Tortoises). Taylor and Francis, London, England. 79pp.); Mongofa (Testudo gopher: Gray, John E. 1856. Catalogue of shield reptiles in the collection of the British Museum. Part I. Testudinata (Tortoises). Taylor and Francis, London, England. 79pp.); Carolina Gopher (Testudo carolina: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Gopher (Xerobates polyphemus: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Gopher Turtle (Testudo carolina: Davis, N. S. Jr. and Frank L. Rice. 1883. Descriptive catalogue of North American batrachia and reptilia, found east of Mississippi River. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 1(5):71); Gopher (Gopherus polyphemus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Gopher Turtle (Gopherus polyphemus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);


Selected References:
1802 "1801" Daudin, Francois M. Histoire naturelle des rainettes, des grenouilles et des crapauds. [Natural history of tree frogs, frogs and toads.] Quarto version. de L'imprimerie de Bertrandet, Rue de Sorbonne, Paris, France. 468pp.
1942 Barbour, Thomas. Unnecessary nomenclatorial changes. Copeia 1942(3):179
1974 Bramble, Dennis M. Occurrence and significance of the Os transiliens in gopher tortoises. Copeia 1974:102-109
1976 Auffenberg, Walter. The genus Gopherus (Testudinidae): Pt. I. Osteology and relationships of extant species. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences. 20(2):47-110
1978 Auffenberg, Walter and Franz, Richard. Gopherus.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (211):1-2
1978 Auffenberg, Walter and Franz, Richard. Gopherus polyphemus.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (215):1-2
1982 Bramble, Dennis M. Scaptochelys: Generic revision and evolution of gopher tortoises. Copeia 1982(4):852-867
2011 Richter, Stephen C., Jeffrey A. Jackson, Matthew Hinderliter, Deborah Epperson, Christopher W. Theodorakis, and S. Marshall Adams. Conservation genetics of the largest cluster of federally threatened Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) colonies with implications for species management. Herpetologica 67(4):406-419
2025 Bauer, Aaron M. Testudo atlas Barton, 1806, a long-forgotten synonym of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) and a senior secondary homonym of the largest tortoise that ever lived. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(7):101–107

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