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Malayan
Softshell Turtle (Amyda
cartilaginea) 70 cm
Testudo cartilaginea
P. Boddaert. 1770. Epistola ad W. Roell, cum Tab.: 13; 1 pl.
Amyda
cartilaginea
Type:
Type locality unspecified, restricted to “Java” (in the Greater Sundas,
Indonesia) by Baur (1893). The holotype was originally at the Museo viri
Celeberrimi Johannis Alberti Schlosseri, and is at present Musée National
d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 4150.
Identification:
The Malayan softshell turtle is one of the commonest of turtles,
recognisable from its pig-like snout, skin-clad shell and rounded or oval
carapace. The dorsal surface of the shell is greenish-gray or olive,
sometimes with yellow-bordered black spots or radiating streaks, which
tend to disappear with growth. Unlike the Asian softshell turtle (Dogania
subplana), this species has rounded (not straight) sides to its
carapace and has a relatively narrower head. Over much of its range, it
co-occurs with the Asian softshell turtle, appearing to replace it in the
lowlands, occurring in large muddy rivers, swamps and marshes. Adult males
of both species have relatively longer tails that exceed the carapace rim.
In addition, in this turtle, the plastron is white in males, gray in
females.
Natural
history: Both these turtles are active at night and carnivorous, feeding
on fishes, frogs, shrimps and water insects. Nests of the Malayan
softshell turtle are holes on river banks, where four to eight rounded
eggs, measuring 21-33 mm in diameter, are laid. These hatch in about four
and half months time.
Distribution:
The species occurs from northeastern India and Myanmar, through Thailand,
Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam to the islands of Sumatra, Java
and Borneo
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