NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Bell's eastern hinged tortoise
Kinixys belliana Gray, 1831
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Male adult Kinixys belliana nogueyi
No machine-readable author provided. Diotime75 assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Bell's hinge-back tortoise (Kinixys belliana), also known commonly as Bell's eastern hinged tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to central Africa. It has the hinge that characterizes all tortoises in the genus Kinixys. There are no recognized subspecies.
Wikipedia contributors, Bell's hinge-back tortoise; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:00:20.355291+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Kinixys belliana Gray, 1831
- Name authority
- Gray, 1831
- Common name
- Bell's eastern hinged tortoise
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Testudines
- Family
- Testudinidae
- Genus
- Kinixys
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderTestudines Batsch, 1788
- suborderCryptodira
- superfamilyTestudinoidea
- familyTestudinidae
- genusKinixys
- speciesKinixys belliana Gray, 1831
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Kinixys. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Lobatse Hingeback TortoiseKinixys lobatsiana (Power, 1927) | TestudinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bell’s Hingeback TortoiseKinixys nogueyi (Lataste, 1886) | TestudinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bell’s Hingeback TortoiseKinixys zombensis Hewitt, 1931 | TestudinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Home’s Hingeback TortoiseKinixys homeana Bell, 1827 | TestudinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Speke's Hingeback TortoiseKinixys spekii Gray, 1863 | TestudinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Kinixys belliana mertensi Laurent, 1956 Laurent, 1956 | synonym |
| Kinixys schoensis Rüppell, 1845 Rüppell, 1845 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Kinixys&species=belliana Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3R828. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.