454 



FOSSIL TURTLES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Testudo pertenuis Cope. 

 Fig. 609. 



Testudo pertenuis, COPE, Proc. Acad. Nat. Scl. Phila. 1892, p. 226; 4th Ann. Report Geol. Surv. Texas, 

 1892 (1893), p. 47, figs, i, 2. HAY, Bibliog. and Cat. Foss. Vert. N. A., 1902, p. 451. GIDLEY, 

 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., xix, 1903, p. 627. MONTGOMERY, Biol. Bull., vni, 1904, p. 57. 



The type and only known specimen belongs to the University of Texas. It was discovered 

 by Professor Cope in the year 1892, in the Blanco beds of the Pliocene, near Mount Blanco, 



Crosby County, Texas. Of this species the writer 

 found in the University of Texas only three 

 or four large fragments which had been glued 

 to sheets of paper. These fragments may or 

 may not belong to the type. The thickened por- 

 tions of the anterior and posterior lobes of the 

 plastron appear not to have been preserved. 

 It seems probable that the type was injured 

 before being returned to the collection at Austin. 

 Under the circumstances, nothing more can be 

 done than to republish Cope's description and 

 his apparently more or less diagrammatic illus- 

 tration (fig. 609). In this figure, I represents 

 the carapace and part of the front of the plas- 

 tron seen from above. The other part of the 

 figure, 2, shows the hinder lobe of the plastron as 

 seen from above. 



Founded on a large specimen measuring three 

 and a half feet in length by three in width, and re- 

 markable for the transverse width of the vertebral 

 dermal scuta. The carapace is rather flat and 

 descends steeply posteriorly, the anal marginal bone 

 being somewhat incurved. Margins of carapace flare 

 outwards above the legs. The plastron has a rather 

 wide lip, with flat base and straight lateral borders; 

 its anterior border is lost. The posterior lobe is 

 deeply and widely notched, terminating on each side 

 in a subequilateral angular prominence. Both cara- 

 pace and plastron are without sculpture, the poste- 

 rior angles of the plastron only being longitudinally 

 grooved below. The vertebral scuta are considerably 



wider than long, as is also the anal scutum. Both carapace and plastron are very thin, not exceeding 



one-quarter inch in the specimen described, except at the borders. 



FlG. 609. Testudo pertenuis. X is- 



c.J. I, first costal scute; ent, entoplastron; epi, epiplastron; 

 v. s. 2, v. j. 5, first and fifth vertebral scutes. From 

 Cope's figure. 



MEASUREMENTS. 

 Feet. 



Length over all 4.2 



Width over all 4 



Feet. 



Length of last costal 95 



Width of lip of plastron at base 8 



Width of penultimate dorsal scute i .275 Width of anterior lobe at axillae 2 



Width of posterior lobe of plastron at base. . . . 



Width at fundus of median notch i . i 



Width at apices of angular processes 85 



Depth of notch 5 



Length 85 



Width of last vertebral scute 1.35 



Width of anal scute 1.5 



Length 6 



Length of penultimate costal scute 9 



This is the largest species of land-tortoise yet known from North America. 



In its broad, deprest shell, with its broad vertebral scutes, this species appears to have 

 resembled somewhat T. fansa, of the Pawnee Miocene. It differs, however, in several im- 

 portant respects. The carapace of T. pertenuis is said to descend steeply behind and to have 

 the pygal somewhat incurved. In T. fansa the rear of the shell slopes gradually downward 

 and backward, and the pygal is not at all incurved. The shell of T. pertenuis is stated to have 

 the borders flaring over the limbs, a condition not true in T. fansa. The vertebral scutes of 



