20 Curtis C. Bentley and James L. Knight 



of box turtles at or near the size of the northwestern populations discussed by 

 Milstead (1969). Additionally, several significantly smaller isolated peripherals 

 were collected from the Ardis site, but these peripherals are largely unfused and 

 may represent juveniles. The association of the smaller fused plastral lobe with 

 significantly larger specimens suggests that during the height of the Wisconsin 

 glaciation there may have been intergradation between local and northerly dis- 

 placed populations of T. c. Carolina, and populations of T. c. major, T. c. triun- 

 guis, and T. c. baud radiating from the south. The Ardis population, being pre- 

 dominantly large box turtles, suggests that T. c. major traits (very large size, 

 elongated shells, and upward curvature of peripherals) were more predominant 

 during this time period. 



The Ardis site produced two partial fossil skulls; SCSM 91.165.19 asso- 

 ciated with a carapace of 245-250 mm. in length, and (.436), an isolated partial 

 skull comparable in size to SCSM 91.165.19 (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7). We failed to 

 distinguish any consistent differences between our skulls and Recent specimens 

 except for size and an exaggerated upward curvature of the supraoccipital crest 

 in specimen SCSM 91.165.19. This extreme curvature is considered an anom- 

 aly due to its complete absence in other fossil specimens; however, it is noted in 

 Recent specimens but is less developed. The supraoccipital is thought to be one 

 of the most variable cranial elements for box turtle systematics (W. Auffenberg, 

 University of Florida, personal communication). 



The parietals of most Recent specimens examined of Terrapene Caroli- 

 na had parietals that were inflated anteriorly, with a reduction in the tabled, dor- 

 sal surface of this element. Although extremely preliminary, we suggest a cor- 

 relation between size and the degree of parietal inflation in T. c. major. Anteri- 

 or inflation of the parietals is greatly reduced to absent among the largest speci- 

 mens. In other subspecies of T. Carolina, the inflation of the parietals remains 

 fairly constant. The two skulls from the Ardis site do not exhibit anterior infla- 

 tion of the parietals. The morphological similarities between the fossil box tur- 

 tles of the Ardis site and the Recent and fossil specimens examined from muse- 

 um collections (Fig. 7) suggests that the greatest affinity of the Ardis specimens 

 is to T. c. major. They support the synonymy of T. c. putnami with T. c. major 

 (Blaney 1971). Affinities noted by Milstead (1969) between northwestern pop- 

 ulations and T. c. major may be a result of the proposed intergradation between 

 box turtles during the height of the Wisconsin glaciation. The synonymy of T. c. 

 major with T. c. putnami also suggests that T. c. major may have been capable of 

 obtaining a considerably larger size than that observed in living specimens. 



Although we believe a systematic revision of the genus Terrapene is 

 needed, it exceeds the bounds of this faunal review. One of the goals of this dis- 

 cussion, however, is to emphasize the need for such a revision, based both on 

 "standard" characters and on osteological characters of all fossil and extant 

 forms. 



