Taxonomy of Pseudemyd Turtles 41 



fluid preserved P. c. concinna from the Piedmont of North Carolina 

 indicate an overall greater similarity in markings and shell shape than 

 seen comparing New River cooters to P. c. hieroglyphica. This relation- 

 ship is also supported by cranial morphology. In Figures 4-6, New River 

 specimens clearly plot closer to P. c. concinna than to P. c. hierogly- 

 phica. Although the subspecies of river cooters are not well defined and 

 their distinguishing characteristics are inconsistent within and between 

 populations (Mount 1975; and pers. observ.), Pseudemys in the New 

 River of Virginia and West Virginia are most similar morphologically to 

 the eastern river cooter and are here assigned to P. c. concinna. There- 

 fore, I suggest that during the Pleistocene, P. c. concinna ranged farther 

 up Piedmont streams in Virginia and North Carolina and gained access 

 to the New River through stream capture. The presence of the eastern 

 painted turtle, Chrysemys picta picta, in the upper Tennessee (Ernst 

 1970) and New River systems offers additional evidence that this corri- 

 dor has been used in the dispersal of aquatic turtles. Chrysemys p. picta 

 is typically an Atlantic Slope subspecies that is replaced by the midland 

 painted turtle, C. p. marginata, in the Ohio River system. Two speci- 

 mens from Mercer County, West Virginia (WVBS 4238, 4415) and two 

 specimens from Summers County, Bluestone Reservoir (MES 866, 868) 

 are referrable to the eastern subspecies. Two additional specimens from 

 Bluestone Reservoir (MES 867, 869) have characteristics typical of C. p. 

 picta xp. marginata intergrades. River cooters are highly aquatic turtles 

 and less likely than painted turtles to enter a new drainage by terrestrial 

 migration (Ernst and Barbour 1972). However, the preference of P. c. 

 concinna for rocky, fast-running stream habitats (LeConte 1836; Carr 

 1952; Pritchard 1979) might have facilitated its dispersal through small- 

 stream captures. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.— I am grateful to Carl H. Ernst, 

 George Mason University, for directing my attention to the taxonomic 

 problem of Pseudemys in the New River. I thank Laurence E. Bayless, 

 Concord College; Michael Little, Marshall University; and Samuel L. 

 Reynolds, Memphis State University, for help in collecting specimens. 

 The following individuals made this study possible by loan of speci- 

 mens: C. J. McCoy, Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Arnold 

 Kluge, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology; Ernest E. Williams 

 and Jose P. O. Rosado, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 

 University; George Zug and Roy McDiarmid, National Museum of 

 Natural History; William M. Palmer, North Carolina State Museum of 

 Natural History; Joseph T. Collins, University of Kansas Museum of 

 Natural History; Hymen Marx, Field Museum of Natural History; N. 

 Bayard Green, West Virginia Biological Survey; Robert Maslowski, U. 

 S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District; and Richard Zweifel 

 and Michael Klemens, American Museum of Natural History. Appreci- 



