NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

(North-) Western Pond Turtle

Actinemys marmorata (Baird & Girard, 1852)

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.

Open encyclopedia reference

The western pond turtle (Actinemys marmorata), also known commonly as the Pacific pond turtle is a species of small to medium-sized turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is endemic to the western coast of the United States and Mexico, ranging from western Washington state to northern Baja California. It was formerly found in Canada (in British Columbia), but in May 2002, the Canadian Species at Risk Act listed the Pacific pond turtle as being extirpated.

Wikipedia contributors, Western pond turtle; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:50:12.680368+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name: Actinemys marmorata (Baird & Girard, 1852)
Name authority: (Baird & Girard, 1852)
Common name: (North-) Western Pond Turtle
Rank: species
Accepted status: accepted
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Family: Emydidae
Genus: Actinemys
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
familyEmydidae
genusActinemys
speciesActinemys marmorata (Baird & Girard, 1852)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 41 records assigned to Emydidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded name	Source status
Emys marmorata Baird & Girard, 1852 Baird & Girard, 1852	synonym
Clemmys hesperia Hay, 1903 Hay, 1903	synonym
Emys nigra Hallowell, 1854 Hallowell, 1854	ambiguous synonym
Clemmys wosnessenskyi Strauch, 1862 Strauch, 1862	synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

USA (N California, W Oregon, exterme S Washington, isolated colonies exist in the Truckee and Carson rivers in Nevada; (populations north of the San Francisco Bay area plus populations from the Great Central Valley north including the apparently introduced Nevada population, fide Spinks et al. 2014)

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=Actinemys&species=marmorata 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. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

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:9T2V. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.