NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Madagascan Big-headed Side-necked Turtle
Erymnochelys madagascariensis (Grandidier, 1867)
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.
Réserve de Berenty, Amboasary Sud, MADAGASCAR Scanned Slide from 1998
Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The Madagascan big-headed turtle (Erymnochelys madagascariensis) is a turtle native to the waters of permanent slow moving rivers and lakes in western Madagascar. These turtles are critically endangered and have been evaluated to be the most endangered turtle in the world by a 2018 review. Due to its ancient origins and threatened status, it is ranked as #1 on the EDGE of Existence programme's list of priority reptiles.
Wikipedia contributors, Madagascan big-headed turtle; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:18:05.399075+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Erymnochelys madagascariensis (Grandidier, 1867)
- Name authority
- (Grandidier, 1867)
- Common name
- Madagascan Big-headed Side-necked Turtle
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Testudines
- Family
- Podocnemididae
- Genus
- Erymnochelys
- 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
- suborderPleurodira Cope, 1864
- superfamilyPelomedusoidea Cope, 1868
- familyPodocnemididae
- genusErymnochelys
- speciesErymnochelys madagascariensis (Grandidier, 1867)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Dumerilia madagascariensis Grandidier, 1867 Grandidier, 1867 | synonym |
| Podocnemis madagascariensis var. bifilaris Boettger, 1893 Boettger, 1893 | 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=Erymnochelys&species=madagascariensis 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:6GQJ9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.