Platysternon megacephalum (Big-Headed Turtle)
The common name of this Turtle in English is commonly called Big-headed Turtle, Burmese Big-headed Turtle, Vietnamese Big-headed Turtle and Thai name called เต่าปูลู (Dtao bpoo loo).
เต่าปูลู : Platysternon megacephalum Gray, 1831
Platysternon megacephalum is a species of the Genus Platysternon within the Big-headed Turtle Family (Platysternidae), Superfamily Testudinoidea, in the Suborder Cryptodira, in the Turtles Order (Testudines), in the Reptile Class (Reptilia), in the Chordate Phylum (Chordata) in the Animal Kingdom (Animalia).
Published in Gray, J.E. Characters of a new genus of freshwater tortoise from China. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1831: 106-107. (1831).
Named after platus (Greek) = flat and sternon (Greek) = the chest. The specific epithet 'megacephalum' has been named after megas (Greek) = wide, big and kephale (Greek) = the head.
Subspecies
- Platysternon megacephalum megacephalum Gray, 1831 (Range: China)
- Platysternon megacephalum peguense Gray, 1870 (Range: Myanmar and Thailand)
- Platysternon megacephalum shiui Ernst & Mccord, 1987 (Range: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam)
Geographic Range
Platysternon megacephalum has a wide range from the hills of eastern Myanmar through northern Thailand, southern China including Hainan and Hong Kong, Lao PDR, northern, central and southern Viet Nam, to northeastern Cambodia.
Habitat and Ecology
Platysternon megacephalum is a habitat specialist requiring steep clearwater cascading streams in forested hill areas at elevations between 100 and 800 m. A diet study in Hong Kong found fruits from Machilus spp. were most commonly eaten, followed by insects, plant matter, crabs, and molluscs.
Niche breadth was wider in adults than juveniles (Sung et al. 2016). A radio telemetry-based study found that the mean home range of P. megacephalum was 97 m, with no difference between sexes, and longer distance movement in wet season (Sung et al. 2015b).
Single clutches of 2–8 eggs per year have been reported (Sung et al. 2014), 1–3 eggs in China (Zhou and Li 2013). Females mature at eight years and males at 13 years (Sung et al. 2015a).
Lifespan is assumed to be around 50 years on average. The mid-point between the age at maturity (10 years) and average age of mortality (50 years) is 30 years, and used as generation length for this species.
Synonym
- Platysternon megacephalum John Edward Gray (1831)
- Platisternon megacephalus John Edward Gray (1834)
- Platysternon megacephalus John Edward Gray (1835)
- Platysternon megacephalum André Marie Constant Duméril & Gabriel Bibron (1835)
- Emys megacephala Hermann Schlegel (1838)
- Platysternon magacephalum Leopold Fitzinger (1843)
- Platysternon peguense John Edward Gray (1870)
- Platysternon megacephalum peguense John Edward Gray (1870)
- Platysternum megacephalum George Albert Boulenger (1889)
- Platysternon platycephalum Robert Mertens (1959)
- Platysternum megalocephalum Stanek (ex errore) (1959)
- Platysternon megacephalum megacephalum Heinz Wermuth (1960)
- Platysternon megacephalum peguense Heinz Wermuth (1960)
- Platysternon macrocephalus Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1960)
- Platysternon megacephalum vogeli Heinz Wermuth (1969)
- Platysternon magacephalum megacephalum Peter Charles Howard Pritchard (1979)
- Platysternon megacephalum penguense Wirot Nutaphand (1979)
- Platysternon megacephalum penuense Wirot Nutaphand (1979)
- Platysternon megacephalum tristernalis Hans-Hermann Schleich & Ulrich Gruber (1984)
- Platysternon megacephalum shiui Peter Charles Howard Pritchard & William Patrick McCord (1987)
- Platysternon megacephalum tristornalis David Alderton (1988)
- Platysternon megacephalum peguensis R. C. Sharma (1998)
- Platysternon megacephalum Merel J. Cox et al. (1998)
- Platysternon megacephalum peguense Tanya Chan-Ard et al. (1999)
- Platysternon megacephalum Thomas Ziegler (2002)
- Platysternon megacephalum megacephalum Anders Gunnar Johannes Rhodin et al. (2010)
- Platysternon megacephalum peguense Anders Gunnar Johannes Rhodin et al. (2010)
- Platysternon megacephalum shiui Anders Gunnar Johannes Rhodin et al. (2010)
- Platysternon megacephalum Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (TTWG) (2014)