THE EXTINCT FRESH-WATER TURTLES OF 
QUEENSLAND. 
+ _ 
A preliminary notice of these reptiles under the title of " The 
Lesser Chelonians of the Nototherian Drifts," was submitted by the 
writer to the Royal Society of Queensland at its meeting on the 22nd 
September, 1894, and published by the Society in vol. 10 (pp. 123-127) 
of its Proceedings. In that paper attention was drawn to the presence 
in the Darling Downs deposits of abundant fragments of turtle shells, 
indicating apparently the past existence of more than one species, and 
to the inclusion among them of traces of a Mud-turtle, for which the 
name Trionijx australiensis was proposed. A hope was at the same 
time expressed that a study of these commingled shards of former life 
might yield us some idea, however vague and imperfect, of the 
characteristics of the reptiles of which they were once constituents. 
After a long series of delays caused by untoward circumstances, chief 
among them being scanty leisure for work of the kind, an opportunity 
of renewing the subject occurs and use is made of it. 
The bulk of the fragments is found to consist of the relics of a 
few species belonging to the genera Chelymys and Chelodina, the 
Chelonian forms still prevalent in our inland waters ; one species 
which is numerously represented is foreign to any genus known to 
the writer. 
The remnants can, with sufficient confidence, be referred to the 
several species discriminated by their means, but a reproduction of 
the form of the carapaces and plastrons, which has in some instances 
been attempted by reducing fragments of various size to common 
proportions and placing them as nearly as possible in their proper 
positions, is, of course, very liable to error. 
I have to thank my friend, Mr. R. Etheridge, for the opportunity 
of identifying the fossils mentioned as occurring at the Warburton 
River. 
The following species are recognisable : — 
Fam. Chelydidjs. 
Gen. Chelymys. 
CHELYMYS UBERRIMA, n.s.— It is from this species that by 
far the greater number of the remains before us have been derived. Its 
generic identity is indicated by the presence of the superficial markings 
familiar to us in the living species of Chelymys, by the impressions of 
nuchal and inter] ugal shields, and by the sides of the pygal plate 
being quite uncovered by the last costal shields. The species is 
distinguished by the peculiar feebleness of its markings, by the general 
form and proportions of its parts, and by its comparative size. It is 
founded primarily on the only example of some few plates in their 
natural connection, which have occurred among the whole of the 
turtle remains, to show the precise form of the part whence they came : 
in this case the anterior region of the carapace (Plate 1, Eig. A). The 
second and third peripheral plates are extended outwards to a greater 
degree than in the living species ; the peripheral surfaces become more 
