A new species of the genus Ocadia (Testudines: Geoemydidae) from the middle Miocene of Tanegashima Island, southwestern Japan and its paleogeographic implications
Author
Takahashi, Akio
Author
Ōki, Kimihiko
Author
Ishido, Takahiro
Author
Hirayama, Ren
text
Zootaxa
2013
3647
4
527
540
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3647.4.3
bde365aa-bc27-44b2-9463-80ea385bd6a1
1175-5326
217972
7FD5A595-EE31-4D08-BEA9-BB838054B0C8
Ocadia
Gray, 1870
Type
species.
Ocadia sinensis
(Gray, 1834)
.
Included species.
Ocadia sinensis
(Gray, 1834)
;
O. nipponica
Hirayama
et al
., 2007
.
Revised
diagnosis.
Modified on the basis of Smith (1931), Bourret (1941), Ernst and Barbour (1989), Hirayama
et al
. (2007), and this study: medium to large–sized hingeless geoemydids with following combination of character states: hexagonal neural plates short–sided in front; posterior margin of the carapace unserrated; second and third vertebral scutes frequently showing nearly rectangular in shape, as long as wide; the entoplastron intersected by the humero–pectoral sulcus; the plastral buttresses moderately developed, extending to half way of the costal plates; median length of the gular shorter than the interhumeral sulcus and the gular often isolated from the entoplastron; enlarged upper and lower triturating surface decorated by the lingual ridges; the upper triturating surface with a denticulate median ridge; and the foramen palatinum posterius small.
Remarks.
Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses have shown that the genus
Ocadia
is included in a clade with
Chinemys
spp. and
Mauremys japonica
and that these taxa form another more inclusive clade with the remaining living species of
Mauremys
(
Mauremys
sensu lato
, Honda
et al.
2002; Barth
et al.
2004; Feldman and Parham 2004; Spinks
et al.
2004; Sasaki
et al.
2006; Jiang
et al.
2011). However, no synapomorphic morphological character states are known for the two clades (e.g., Honda
et al.
2002; Hirayama
et al.
2007). Actually, because
Ocadia
differs much from
Chinemys
and
Mauremys
in several skull and shell characters (e.g., McDowell 1964; Hirayama 1985; Gaffney and Meylan 1988; Yasukawa
et al.
2001), we retain the genus
Ocadia
for disclosing its past species diversity from paleontological view in the present study.