A quarter millenium of uses and misuses of the turtle name Testudo scabra: Identification of the type specimens of T. scabra Linnaeus 1758 (= Rhinoclemmys punctularia) and T. scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792 (= Trachemys scripta scripta) Author Rhodin, Anders G. J. Author Carr, John L. text Zootaxa 2009 2226 1 18 journal article 10.5281/zenodo.275181 9e1db1fd-9700-47e2-9074-b995f2180821 1175-5326 275181 Testudo scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792 The specimen of “ Testudo scabra Thunberg ” (labeled “ Testudo scripta Thunberg ” on the plate) that Schoepff (1792) used as the basis for the description of Testudo scripta (= Trachemys scripta scripta ) is present in the Thunbergian collection in Uppsala ( Fig. 7 ). It is the only specimen of Testudo scripta in the collection and was accessioned by Thunberg himself, who recorded it in various versions of his museum catalogues. This specimen is the holotype of Trachemys scripta scripta and has never previously been located or identified ( Iverson 1992 ; Seidel and Ernst 2006 ). Interestingly, Schweigger (1812:297) later wrote about T. scripta Schoepff : “ Vidi specimen, quo usus Schoepf., in museo Parisiensi ” (I saw the specimen, used by Schoepff, in the Paris Museum), but that was never confirmed, and it is not there (R. Bour, pers. comm .). Instead, it was part of the Thunberg donation to the collections in Uppsala. Since Schweigger visited both collections, he may have meant “ Upsaliensi ” rather than “ Parisiensi .” The specimen is a small, dried, misshapen hatchling labeled “ Testudo scripta Mus. Thunb. ” by Thunberg himself ( Fig. 7 ) and is the only T. scripta in the entire Linnaean and Thunbergian collections in Uppsala. It measures approximately 31.0 mm straight CL, ca. 30.3 mm PL, and 9.2 mm tympanic head width, and has a trace of its hatchling egg caruncle still visible. It was never given an original accession number, but has now been catalogued as UUZM Types 7455. It was accessioned into the Uppsala collection sometime between 1785 and 1792 , but not with the first group of Thunberg specimens in 1785, being added to the catalogue as “ Testudo scripta ” after the initial entries ( Thunberg 1785 –1817, 1808–1815 ). Aside from entries for this single specimen of T. scripta by Thunberg in various other handwritten museum catalogues, the only actual publication documenting its existence was in Thunberg (1818) where it was listed as being part of the Thunberg donations to the Uppsala collections. Based on examination of the poorly-preserved holotype and its photos ( Fig. 7 ) and examination of its original figure (Schoepff 1792: pl. 3, f. 4, 5, labeled “ Test. scripta Thunb.”) ( Fig. 4 ), we and other colleagues highly familiar with T. scripta (K. Buhlmann, W. Gibbons, and B. Thomas, pers. comm .) agree that it fortunately appears to represent a Trachemys scripta scripta , but genetic analysis would be helpful to be certain.