THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Emydidae  

Rio Grande Cooter
Pseudemys gorzugi Ward, 1984
SOO-deh-meez — gor-ZUG-eye

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: 2023.04.10.09.45.15)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.59 MB

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.

Taxon Links:

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

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 of Natural History 49(5):93-102
1984 Ward, J. 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 05 December 2025 15:55 CT