Gray, 1870b
Eyed turtles
Recognition
The genus Morenia is composed of two aquatic species from India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. The carapace is domed and has a medial keel which is more pronounced in the young. The hexagonal neurals are shortened anteriorly. The narrow plastron is well-developed, but hingeless. It is firmly sutured to the carapace, but its buttresses are short, extending only to the outer edges of the costals. An important feature is the position of the entoplastron which lies anterior to the humero-pectoral suture. In the skull, the frontal bones touch beneath the olfactory nerves posterior to the ethmoid fissure, and are separated from the orbital border by the prefrontal and postorbital bones. The squamosal is firmly in contact with the postorbital, and the carotid canal lies entirely within the pterygoid bone. In the rear of the skull, the exoccipital is supported by an extension of the opisthotic and drops behind the paracapsular sac to form an aperture for the vagus nerve. The upper jaw is medially notched, and its triturating surface is very wide and has a well-defined tubercular medial ridge. The lower triturating surface is ridgeless. The lateral edges of the jaws are serrated. The choanae (internal nostrils) lie at the level of the posterior orbital rim.
Species identification
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