THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Emydidae  

Black-knobbed Map Turtle
Graptemys nigrinoda Cagle, 1954
grap-TEH-meez — nigh-gri-NOH-duh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Ennen et al. (2014, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 111: 810–822) determined that there is not sufficient evidence for the recognition of G. n. delticola. Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (2021, Chelonian Research Monographs (8): 1–472) did not recognize the subspecies G. n. delticola and G. n. nigrinoda. (Taggart, Travis W. and John Carr. 2025. Testudines – Turtles. Pages 55-63 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.21.20.37)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.32 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Mississippi

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for enlarged black knobs on the rear carapace.
Graptemys — Greek graptos = “inscribed” or “marked” + emys = “turtle” — referring to the map-like patterns on the carapace.
nigrinoda — Latin niger = “black” + nodus = “knot” or “knob” — “black-knobbed,” referring to the black projections on the shell.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1954 Cagle, Fred R. Two new species of the genus Graptemys. Tulane Studies in Zoology and Botany 1:167-186
1986 Lahanas, Peter N. Graptemys nigrinoda Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (396):1-2
1994 McCoy, Clarence J., Jr. and Richard C. Vogt. Graptemys. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (584):1-3
1994 Lamb, Trib, Charles Lydeard, R. B. Walker, and J. Whitfield Gibbons. Molecular systematics of map turtles (Graptemys): A comparison of mitochondrial restriction site versus sequence data. Systematic Biology 43:543-559
2014 Ennen, Joshua R., Marley E. Kalis, Adam L. Patterson, Brian R. Kreiser, Jeffery E. Lovich, James Godwin, and Carl P. Qualls. Clinal variation or validation of a subspecies? A case study of the Graptemys nigrinoda complex (Testudines: Emydidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 2014:1-13
2017 Praschag, Peter, Flora Ihlow, Morris Flecks, Melita Vamberger, and Uwe Fritz. Diversity of North American map and sawback turtles (Testudines: Emydidae: Graptemys). Zoologica Scripta 46:675-682
2021 Rhodin, Anders G. J., John B. Iverson, Roger Bour, Uwe Fritz, Arthur Georges, H. Bradley Shaffer, and Peter Paul van Dijk. Turtles and tortoises of the world during the rise and global spread of humanity: First checklist and review of extinct pleistocene and holocene chelonians. Chelonian Research Monographs (8):1-472

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 17:00 CT