THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Reptilia    Testudines    Emydidae  
Rio Grande Cooter
Pseudemys gorzugi Ward, 1984
SOO-deh-meez — gor-ZUG-eye
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
The Reptile Database
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

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

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
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:; 944 Total; 197 Museum; 747 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.04.10.09.45.15)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: New Mexico Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for a modern herpetologist.
Pseudemys — From Greek pseudes (ψευδής, “false”) and emydos (from Emys, the Old-World pond turtle). The coiners meant “false Emys,” signaling that, though these turtles resemble Emys, they are not members of that genus.
gorzugi — A patronym honoring George R. Zug (b. 1938), long-time curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and one of the world’s foremost authorities on lizards, frogs, and turtles from the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia. The epithet combines the initial syllables of his given name and surname with the Latin masculine genitive ending "-i".

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


Selected References:
1980 Vogt, Richard C. and Clarence J. McCoy, Jr. Status of the emydine turtle genera Chrysemys and Pseudemys. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 49(5):93-102
1984 Ward, Joseph P. Relationships of chrysemyid turtles of North America (Testudines: Emydidae). Special Publication of the Museum, Texas Tech University (21):1-50
1990 Ernst, Carl H. Pseudemys gorzugi. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (461):1-2
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles. Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
1994 Seidel, Michael E. Morphometric analysis and taxonomy of cooter and redbelly turtles in the North American genus Pseudemys (Emydidae). Chelonian Conservation and Biology 1:117-130
1996 Seidel, Michael E. and Carl H. Ernst. Pseudemys. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (625):1-7
1997 Siedel, Michael E. and Uwe fritz. Courtship behavior provides additional evidence for a monophyletic Pseudemys, and comments on Mesoamerican Trachemys (Testudines: Emydidae). Herpetological Review 28(2):70-72
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 11 September 2026 18:37 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 71,819 human page views • 36,785 visitors • 25,249 file accesses