Subsequently (Loveridge & Williams 1957; Miiller, 1939), the heights of carapacial scutes have been shown to be 
extremely variable . 
The parade of new names for tortoises continued with August Schweigger's (1812) famous Prodromus 
monographiae Cheloniorum. The Prodromus included three new tortoises, Testudo [= Kinixys] erosa, Testudo [= 
Chersina] angulata and Testudo [= Geochelone] gigantea. Testudo erosa was distinguished by shell shape and its 
denticulate margin. The number of marginal scutes and the elongation of the anterior periphery of the shell was also 
mentioned, but not the unique carapacial hinge. Schweigger used the type locality from Shaw's earlier description 
(1802) of T. denticulata (preoccupied by T. denticulata Linnaeus, 1766); the locality, "America septentrionali," was 
inerror. J. angulata was distinguished by shell shape, shell color, and narrow anterior marginals. Because eleven 
plastral scutes were mentioned the presence of a single gular scute can be inferred. The provenance of this species 
was unknown to Schweigger, who had examined two living specimens at the Paris museum. The description of T. 
gigantea is quite difficult to interpret; over the years it has come to refer to the tortoise now living on the island of 
Aldabra. However, three very different positions have been articulated (Bour, 1982b, 1984b; Crumly, 1986; 
Pritchard, 1986). 
In 1820, Kuhl named Testudo [= Psammobates] oculifera and characterized it by its color pattern and did not 
compare it to any other species. In the same year, Merrem authored his Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien 
(1820). He introduced a new generic name, Chersine, for all tortoises. This name subsumed many turtles besides 
testudinids (for example, Kinosternon scorpioides, Clemmys muhlenbergi). In part, this name has been considered a 
synonym of Testudo. 
Four years later, Spix (1824) named Testudo [= Geochelone] carbonaria, and three species now considered 
synonyms of G. denticulata, i. e., Testudo hercules, T. sculpta and T. cagado. Hoogmoed and Gruber (1983) 
discovered that, except for 4 specimens of T. sculpta in the Zoologische Sammlung des Bayerischen Staates (= ZSM) 
collections (ZSM 2753/0 a, b, c and 2738/0), Spix's tortoise types had been destroyed near the end of World War II. 
Spix used color, elevated conical carapacial scutes and eroded lateral shell margins in his description of T. carbonaria. 
In 1827, a banner year for new tortoise taxa, four species and 2 genera were described. Richard Harlan (1827) 
named Testudo [= Geochelone] elephantopus based on its reflected anterior shell margin and absent terminal tail 
spine. Thomas Bell (1827) named three new species and two new genera. Bell distinguished Pyxis arachnoides, a 
new species and genus, from other tortoises on the basis of its unique anterior plastral hinge. He coined Kinixys for 
those tortoises with posteriorly mobile carapacial lobe and recognized two species, Kinixys castenea and K. 
homeana. K. castenea was later synonymized with K. erosa by Gray (1831b). Bell did not mention and was 
apparently unaware of Schweigger's (1812) earlier description of T. [= Kinixys] erosa. 
In the following year, Bell (1828) named three more taxa: Testudo [= Psammobates] tentoria, Testudo [= 
Geochelone] pardalis and Testudo actinoides. Testudo actinoides was synonymized with Testudo [= Geochelone] 
elegans by Boulenger (1889). T. tentorius was distinguished from other tortoises on the basis of conical carapace 
scutes, a radiating carapacial color pattern and unequal sized anterior marginals. This last trait was not mentioned by 
earlier workers, and apparently Bell considered it a very significant diagnostic character. Bell diagnosed T. [= 
Geochelone] pardalis by the light-golden yellow colored carapace with black flecks, the superior location of the 
pleural areolae, and the equal sized anterior marginals, emphasizing the pleural areolae trait. 
John Edward Gray's Cataphracta volume of the Synopsis Reptilium appeared in 1831; he named two new 
taxa, Kinixys belliana was described in the Additions and Corrections chapter and was distinguished from other 
Kinixys species by the shape of the carapace, cervical scute and shell margin. He believed that this new species was 
intermediate between K. erosa and K. denticulata (?= Testudo denticulata Shaw 1802). During this same year, Gray 
(1831a) coined Chersina (not the same as Merrem's Chersine of 1820) for Testudo angulata Schweigger. He noted 
eleven plastral scutes (from which I infer that there was a single gular scute) as the distinguishing feature of this 
South African species. 
Peter Simon Pallas (1831) named Testudo ibera [= T. graeca ibera], in the third volume of a posthumously 
published three volume set. The original date of publication for this third volume has been variously cited: 1814 by 
Wermuth (1958), Darevsky and Mertens (1973), and Wermuth and Mertens (1961, 1977), and 1827 by Mertens 
(1946). Neither is correct. In Pallas's Zoographica Rosso-Asiatica, the description of Testudo ibera is species 
number 14 on page 18, thus 1814. Zaunick (1925) noted that the third volume of the set was published in 1831 
