Turtles 1 9 



Fig. 6 Partial fossil carapace of Terrapene Carolina major (SCSM 91.165.1) 

 which contained the skull (SCSM 91.165.19) shown in figure 6d. 



Large fossil box turtle remains have generally been referred to as T. c. putnami 

 or T. c. putnami x major (Milstead 1969). T. c. putnami differs from T. c. major 

 only in size, attaining lengths upwards of 300 mm (Auffenberg 1967, Milstead 

 1969). The largest Recent specimen of T. c. major on record has a carapace 

 length of 216 mm (Conant and Collins 1991). Auffenberg (1967) reported a 

 large box turtle (233 mm), with skull, from Haile 8A, stating that it was very sim- 

 ilar to T. c. major. Blaney (1971) placed T. c. putnami in synomyny with T. c. 

 major, based on the shared characters of the two subspecies, and stated that size 

 alone was not a justifiable reason to recognize a subspecies. The fossil box tur- 

 tles from the Ardis site exhibit all the characters Milstead (1969) used to distin- 

 guish T. c. putnami. Furthermore, the five specimens had carapace lengths of 

 190.0 mm to 260.0 mm. Shell and axial elements of fossil box turtles from the 

 Ardis site could not be consistently distinguished from Recent specimens of T. c. 

 major except by size. Milstead (1969) stated that populations of T. c. Carolina in 

 Massachusetts and Michigan, on the northwestern edge of the subspecies range, 

 appear to have strong morphological affinities to T. c. major having average cara- 

 pace lengths of 140 mm and 139 mm respectively. Milstead suggested that this 

 relationship may be due to a pre-Wisconsin influence of T. c. putnami or the 

 influence of T. c. triunguis. An isolated, fused posterior plastral lobe (82.26 mm) 

 collected from the Ardis site was estimated to belong to a specimen with a cara- 

 pace length of about 140-145 mm. This plastral lobe might indicate the presence 



