TESTUDINID^;. 453 



Testudo turgida Cope. 



Testudo turgida, COPE, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., xxx, 1892, p. 127; Amer. Naturalist, xxvi, 1892, p. 50; 

 3d Ann. Report Geol. Surv. Texas, 1891 (1892), p. 255; 4th Ann. Report Geol. Surv. Texas, 1892 

 (1893), p. 47. HAY, Bibliog. and Cat. Foss. Vert. N. A., 1902, p. 452. GIDLEY, Bull. Amer. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., xix, 1903, p. 627. 



The type specimen of the present species belongs to the University of Texas. It was 

 discovered in the Blanco beds of the Pliocene, near Espuella, Dickens County, Texas. No 

 figures of the species have ever been publisht. The writer examined the materials in the 

 collection at the University of Texas, at Austin, but was not able to find Cope's type of the 

 species. Remains of two or three other specimens of the species are in the collection, but a 

 description of them would add little to what Cope has recorded. This author's description 

 is here reproduced. That found in the Third Annual Report, as cited above, is identical with 

 that found in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. It runs as follows: 



This species is represented by the greater pan of a chelonite of about the size of the Xerobatcs agassizit 

 of Arizona. It is remarkable for the remarkable depth of the dermal sutures and sculpture lines, and 

 for the swollen character of the interspaces which separate both. The general shape is a short, wide 

 oval, with steep to vertical margins. 



The plastron is widely emarginate posteriorly, and the anal-femoral dermal sutures form a deep 

 notch in the border. The anal scuta are oblique rhomboids, with equal and nearly parallel sides. The 

 median longitudinal dermal suture is deep and wide, cutting half through the thickness of the plastron. 

 It sends off a branch on each side bounding the gular plates in front. The part of the plastron inclosed 

 in the latter forms two flattened cones appressed together, whose vertical diameter exceeds the transverse, 

 and whose subconic apices are separated by a deep notch. The interclavicular bone is very large and 

 is wide diamond-shaped, the anterior angle being larger than the posterior. The transverse humero- 

 pectoral suture is very deep, and is similar to the median longitudinal. The borders of the anterior lobe 

 are strongly convex, with a chord only twice as long as the lateral border of the gular plates. 



The nuchal bone has a strongly concave-emarginate border. On the posterior vertebral bones is a 

 seat-like cavity, which is surrounded by a ridge which forms the greater part of a circle. The costal bones 

 are unequally divided by the costal dermal sutures, which are very deep. Each costal scutum is divided 

 into two areas, one of which is marked with ribs parallel to the vertebral axis at one extremity and a 

 seat-shaped plane with a bordering ridge at the other, which is in some of the costals smaller and more 

 swollen. The other half or part of the scutal area is swollen in the longitudinal direction, but not for 

 its entire length. The marginal bones are massive and have a subacute border between the bridge and 

 the median points. They are much deeper than long, and are deeply divided by the sutures which 

 separate the dermal marginals. These grooves cut the margin into deep notches at some points and into 

 lower ones at others. The areas between these sutures are all swollen in the same way as the alternate 

 parts of the costal plates. 



MEASUREMENTS. 



Millimeters. Millimeters. 



Length of plastron anterior to posterior angle of Diameters of free marginal near bridge: 



interclavicle 80 Antero-posterior 20 



Width of plastron anterior to posterior angle of Vertical 34 



interclavicle 1 1 1 Transverse below 25 



Length of interclavicle 40 Diameters of marginal of bridge : 



Width of interclavicle 58 Antero-posterior 29 



Thickness of interclavicle 1 1 Vertical 44 



Length of free lateral margin of gular plate 19 Transverse below 21 



Width of base of both gular plates 45 Diameters of penultimate vertebral bones: 



Length of xiphiplastral bone 32 Antero-posterior 17 



Width of ziphiplastral bone on anterior suture. . . 53 Transverse 30 



Width of emargination of posterior lobe of plastron 50 



The American tortoise which has produced gular areas somewhat like those of this species is the 

 Testudo cultrata Cope of the White River Neocene of Colorado. That species is however, totally 

 different in the dermal sutures of the usual character, flat marginals, etc., and the gular processes are 

 not conic, but trihedral in form. 



The specimen above described conies from Kspuella, near Dockum, from the same horizon as 

 that of Crosby County, or the Blanco beds of Cummins. 



In the Fourth Annual Report, as cited in the synonymy, Professor Cope stated that 7 

 specimens of this species were found together at one locality, which did not yield any other 

 vertebrate remains. Fragments of 2 other individuals were found at other localities in direct 

 association with Mammalia. 



