The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kyphosis and other Variations in
Soft-shelled Turtles, by Hobart M. Smith

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Title: Kyphosis and other Variations in Soft-shelled Turtles

Author: Hobart M. Smith

Release Date: August 8, 2010 [EBook #33373]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Kyphosis and other Variations in Soft-shelled Turtles

BY

HOBART M. SMITH

University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History

Volume 1, No. 6, pp. 117-124
July 7, 1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Donald S. Farner,
Donald F. Hoffmeister

Volume 1, No. 6, pp. 117-124
July 7, 1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY
FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1947

[Illustration]

21-6301

Kyphosis and other Variations in Soft-shelled Turtles

By

HOBART M. SMITH

Kyphotic (hump-backed) soft-shelled turtles have been known for many
years in Asia and America. Gressitt (Peking Natural History Bulletin, 2
(pt. 4): 413-415, figs. 1-5, 1937) has reviewed accounts of such
turtles, and recorded the anomaly in _Amyda sinensis_ (Wiegmann) and _A.
steindachneri_ (Siebenrock) of Asia and in unidentified species in the
United States. Records of kyphosis in American species apparently are
few.

Three skeletons in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History
demonstrate occurrence of the condition in at least 3 American species:
_Amyda emoryi_ (Agassiz), _A. mutica_ (Le Sueur) and _A. spinifera_ (Le
Sueur). The specimen of _A. emoryi_ (Catalog No. 2219) was taken at
Phoenix, Maricopa Co., Arizona, by Victor H. Householder, on May 1,
1926. The second specimen, called to my attention by C. W. Hibbard, was
taken in 1936 from the Kansas River at Lawrence, Douglas Co., Kansas, by
Max Wheatley, to whom I am indebted for the accompanying photographs and
permission to describe the specimen which he