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| Yellow Marginated Box Turtle, Cuora flavomarginata (Gray, 1863). Photograph of an animal in the pet trade. This turtle is also placed in the genus Cistoclemmys by some authors. Adults reach 170 mm in carapace length. It inhabits ponds and rice paddies, but may also use closed canopy streams in southern China, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands. |
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| Spiny Turtle, Heosemys spinosa (Gray, 1831). Photograph of a captive in a private collection. Adults reach a carapace length of 220 mm. It inhabits southern Myanmar and peninsular Thailand and Malaysia, as well as the Greater Sunda Islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The spiny turtle uses mountain streams running through forests, but it will wander overland. It appears to be omnivorous, based upon captive specimens feeding habits. |
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| The yellow-necked Turtle, Ocadia sinensis (Gray, 1843) ranges from coastal southern China, including the island of Hainan, into Northern Vietnam, and it is present on the island of Taiwan. This herbivorous species uses slow moving and stagnant bodies of water. |
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| Malayan Snail Eating Turtles, Malayemys subtrijuga (Schlegel and Muller, 1844). Photographed in Uttaradit Province, Thailand. These turtles were found dead in a gill net, and were being grilled by the fishermen (top photo). This is a young turtle from Kabinburi Lake in southeastern Thailand (middle photo). The bottom photo is a captive animal foraging for snails on the bottom of its tank. |
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| Malayan Flat Shelled Turtle, Notochelys platynota (Gray, 1834). Adults reach a carapace length of 320 mm. It inhabits southern Myanmar and peninsular Thailand and Malaysia, as well as the Greater Sunda Islands of Java, Sumatra and Borneo. It may be more widespread in Indochina, since there is a report of it from Vietnam. Aquatic habitats with soft substrates in rainforest are the preferred habitat for this species. It is herbivorous. |
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| Malaysian Giant Turtle, Orlitia borneensis Gray, 1873. Adults reach a carapace length of 800 mm. It is an aquatic turtle of Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo, and is poorly known. Omnivorous. |
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| This family contains 25 genera and about 53 species that are mostly aquatic or semi-aquatic, but there is at least one species that is completely terrestrial. Most species occur in Eurasia, ranging from southern Europe to Japan and southward into the Sunda Shelf Islands. One genus (Rhinoclemmys) occurs in Central America and northern South America as far south as northern Ecuador. They use mostly freshwater habitats ranging from mountain streams to large rivers and lakes, and some species use estuaries. Some are known to deposit their eggs along side sea turtles on beaches. Clutch sizes tend to be small 1-10 eggs, but larger species may lay as many as 30 eggs per clutch. Incubation can be relatively long, 3-5 months. Most geoemydids are herbivorous, but at least a few are carnivorous. Recent molecular work suggests that the sister group to the species included here are the tortoises, that Rhinoclemmys may be more closely related to the true tortoises, and that all of the species included here may form a clade within the Testudinidae. Thus Geoemydidae as defined here includes the Batagurinae, the Geoemydinae, and Rhinoclemmys. Some authors have considered the Batagurinae and Geoemydinae separate families while others have included them with the Emydidae. |
