Gray, 1869b
Stripe-necked turtles
Recognition
Mauremys is a genus of six semi-aquatic batagurines that occur from southern Europe and northern Africa through the Middle East, in southeastern Asia, and on the Japanese islands. The carapace is low arched and medially keeled. Two lateral keels are also present in young individuals, but are usually obliterated with age. The hexagonal neurals are shortest either anteriorly or posteriorly. The plastron lacks a hinge, and is firmly joined to the pleural bones by moderate to strongly developed buttresses. In the skull, the squamosal always touches the postorbital, but may not touch the jugal. The orbito-nasal foramen is bordered by the basisphenoid anterior to the primitive caroticum foramen. The ethmoid fissure is narrow and shaped like a keyhole. The pterygoid separates the ventral portion of the jugal from the anterior edge of the inferior process of the parietal. This inferior process touches the palatine in the species annamensis, caspica, leprosa, and mutica, but is narrowly separated in japonica. Its condition in M. iversoni has not been reported.
Species identification
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