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Reptilia    Testudines    Kinosternidae  

Razor-backed Musk Turtle
Sternotherus carinatus (Gray, 1856)

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 '(Gray, 1855)' [Catalogue of shield reptiles in the collection of the British Museum. Part I. Testudinata (Tortoises). Taylor and Francis, London, England] was listed as the authority in previous editions of this list. That publication didn't appear until 8 March 1856 (Webb, 1995, Chelonian Conservation and Biology 1: 322–32). Gray (1856, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1855: 197–202) was published on 5 February 1856 (Webb, op. cit.), and therefore has priority.
Based on species-tree and demographic modeling, Scott et al. (2018, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 120: 1–15) found strong support for the recognition of S. carinatus as has been previously defined.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.13.21.19)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.91 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Alabama Arkansas Louisiana Mississippi Oklahoma Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Keeled Stink-Pot (Aromochelys carinatum: 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.); Little Musk Turtle (Aromochelys carinatus: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. 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. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Southern Mud Turtle (Aromochelys carinata: 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); Keeled Mud Turtle (Aromochelys carinata: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Carinated Musk Turtle (Aromochelys carinatus: Rhoads, Samuel N. 1895. Contributions to the zoology of Tennessee. No. 1, Reptiles and amphibians. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 47():376-407); Musk Turtle (Aromochelys carinata: Beyer, George. 1900. Louisana herpetology. Proceedings of the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 1897-1899():24-46); Keeled Musk Turtle (Kinosternon carinatum: 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); Keel-backed Musk Turtle (Sternotherus carinatus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Mississippi Musk Turtle (Sternotherus carinatus carinatus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1856 Gray, John E. Catalogue of shield reptiles in the collection of the British Museum. Part I. Testudinata (Tortoises). Taylor and Francis, London, England. 79pp.
1856 Gray, John E. On some new species freshwater tortoises from North America, Ceylon and Australia. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology 18(2):263-268
1856 Gray, John E. On some new species of freshwater tortoises from North America, Ceylon and Australia, in the collection of the British Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1855(23):197-202
1956 Tinkle, Donald W. The systematics and ecology of the Sternotherus carinatus complex (Testudinata: Chelydridae). Dissertation. Tulane University, New Orleans, Lousiana. 233pp.
1958 Tinkle, Donald W. The systematics and ecology of the Sternotherus carinatus complex (Testudinata, Chelydridae). Tulane Studies in Zoology and Botany 6(1):1-56
1979 Iverson, John B. Sternotherus carinatus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (226):1-2
1981 Seidel, Michael E., and R.V. Lucchino S.L. Reynolds. Phylogenetic relationships among musk turtles (genus Sternotherus) and genic variation in Sternotherus odoratus. Herpetologica 37(3):161-165
1986 Zug, George R. Sternotherus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (397):1-3
1995 Webb, Robert G. Date of publication of Gray's Catalogue of Shield Reptiles. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 1(4):322-323
2018 Scott, Peter A., Travis C Glenn, and Leslie J Rissler. Resolving taxonomic turbulence and uncovering cryptic diversity in the Musk Turtles (Sternotherus) using robust demographic modeling. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 120:1-15
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: Monday 19 May 2025 18:47 CT