The red side-necked turtle (''Rhinemys rufipes''), red turtle, red-footed sideneck turtle, William's toadhead turtle, or red-footed Amazon side-necked turtle''Rhinemys rufipes ''
The Reptile Database is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

species of

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

in the family

Chelidae Chelidae is one of three living families of the turtle suborder Pleurodira, and are commonly called Austro-South American side-neck turtles. The family is distributed in Australia, New Guinea, parts of Indonesia, and throughout most of South Amer ...

. It is found in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, and possibly

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Description

This species is dimorphic in size meaning the sexes show different characteristics. One study found that the largest female out of a group of 24 was 256 mm in carapace length. Out of that same group, the largest male was only 199 mm in carapace length. A study focused on determining how these turtles acquire their sex discovered that it is not environmentally determined rather, it is a genetic sex determination.Viana, P. F., Feldberg, E., Cioffi, M. B., de Carvalho, V. T., Menezes, S., Vogt, R. C., Liehr, T., & Ezaz, T. (2020). The Amazonian Red Side-Necked Turtle Rhinemys rufipes (Spix, 1824) (Testudines, Chelidae) Has a GSD Sex-Determining Mechanism with an Ancient XY Sex Microchromosome System. ''Cells (Basel, Switzerland)'', ''9''(9), 1–.

Gallery

File:Rhinemys rufipes Manaus2.jpg File:Rhinemys rufipes Manaus3.jpg File:Rhinemys-rufipes-03000048151 01.jpg File:Captura de tela 2023-11-17 213540.png, Male (left), female (right).

References

Rhinemys Fauna of the Amazon Turtles of South America Turtles of Brazil Reptiles of Colombia Reptiles described in 1824 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Turtle-stub