THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Kinosternidae  

Sonora Mud Turtle
Kinosternon sonoriense LeConte, 1854
KY-no-ster-non — soh-nor-ee-EN-say

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2025.07.02.08.19.02)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.4 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona California Nevada New Mexico

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the Sonoran Desert region.
Kinosternon — Greek for “moving chest.”
sonoriense — Latinized form of “Sonora,” referencing the desert or Mexican state.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Henry's Mud Turtle (Cinosternum henrici: 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); Le Conte's Mud Turtle (Cinosternum sonoriense: 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); Henry's Mud Turtle (Kinosternon sonoriense: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Sonoran Mud Turtle (Kinosternon sonoriense: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1854 LeConte, John. Description of four new species of Kinosternum. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 7:180-190
1976 Iverson, John B. Kinosternon sonoriense. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (176):1-2
1997 Starkey, David E. Molecular systematics and biogeography of the New World turtle genera Trachemys and Kinosternon. Dissertation. Texas A&M, College Station, Texas.. 149pp.
2012 Riedle, J. Daren, PHilip C. Rosen, Richard T. Kazmaier, Peter Holm, and Cristina A. Jones. Conservation status of an endemic Kinosternid, Kinosternon sonoriense longifemorale, in Arizona. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 11(2):182-189
2017 Bezy, Robert L., Philip C. Rosen, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Erik F. Enderson. Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico Mesoamerican Herpetology 4(1):138-167
2022 Stone, Paul A., Justin D. Congdon, Marie E. B. Stone, James N. Stuart, John B. Iverson, and Philip C. Rosen. Kinosternon sonoriense (LeConte 1854) – Sonora Mud Turtle, Desert Mud Turtle, Sonoyta Mud Turtle, Casquito de Sonora.v1.2022. Chelonian Research Monographs 5(16):119.1–22

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:54 CT