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The Taxonomic Significance of Cloacal Bursae in Turtles

1958; Kansas Academy of Science; Volume: 61; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3626743

1938-5420

Hobart M. Smith, Louis F. James,

Veterinary Equine Medical Research

The presence of cloacal bursae in some species of turtles was recorded 225 years ago by Perrault (1733:183), who stated in connection with his thorough anatomical description of Testudo elegans that a number of freshwater turtles possess these bursae although T. elegans does not. Bojanus figured them 85 years later in his marvelously illustrated anatomy of the European Emys orbicularis (1819-1821: figs. 157, 158), but called no special attention to their uniqueness. Geoffroy St. Hilaire (1827: pl. 2, figs. 2-4) illustrates a pair of cloacal depressions closely resembling openings into cloacal bursae in what he calls the tortu 't boite (box turtle, no scientific name given), but describes the depressions as attachments for a pair of pelvic ligaments. Le Sueur (1839) was the first to emphasize the peculiar nature of these structures, but even he did not list the 12 species in which he had found them. He did state that they do not occur in Gopherus polyphemus and North American Amyda (species not cited). Not until 1876 (Anderson) was the occurrence of cloacal bursae in the order Testudines surveyed with any degree of thoroughness; 12 genera and at least 17 species (as now recognized) were sampled. Since then two other surveys (Hoffman, 1890:293-296, and Pickel, 1899) have appeared. In none of these has a sufficient number of forms been sampled to permit any conclusions concerning the occurrence of these bursae except in limited groups such as the trionychids, emyids, and testudinids. To our knowledge, only Loveridge and Williams (1956) have made use of these structures as a taxonomic character.