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. 2011:(113):39-71.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.113.1353. Epub 2011 Jun 28.

The dazed and confused identity of Agassiz's land tortoise, Gopherus agassizii (Testudines, Testudinidae) with the description of a new species, and its consequences for conservation

Robert W Murphy  1 , Kristin H Berry, Taylor Edwards, Alan E Leviton, Amy Lathrop, J Daren Riedle
Affiliations

The dazed and confused identity of Agassiz's land tortoise, Gopherus agassizii (Testudines, Testudinidae) with the description of a new species, and its consequences for conservation

Robert W Murphy et al. Zookeys. 2011.

Abstract

We investigate a cornucopia of problems associated with the identity of the desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii (Cooper). The date of publication is found to be 1861, rather than 1863. Only one of the three original cotypes exists, and it is designated as the lectotype of the species. Another cotype is found to have been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire. The third is lost. The lectotype is genetically confirmed to be from California, and not Arizona, USA as sometimes reported. Maternally, the holotype of Gopherus lepidocephalus (Ottley & Velázques Solis. 1989) from the Cape Region of Baja California Sur, Mexico is also from the Mojavian population of the desert tortoise, and not from Tiburon Island, Sonora, Mexico as previously proposed. A suite of characters serve to diagnose tortoises west and north of the Colorado River, the Mojavian population, from those east and south of the river in Arizona, USA, and Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico, the Sonoran population. Species recognition is warranted and because Gopherus lepidocephalus is from the Mojavian population, no names are available for the Sonoran species. Thus, a new species, Gopherus morafkaisp. n., is named and this action reduces the distribution of Gopherus agassizii to only 30% of its former range. This reduction has important implications for the conservation and protection of Gopherus agassizii, which may deserve a higher level of protection.

Keywords: Arizona; California; Gopherus lepidocephalus; Lectotype; Mexico; Xerobates; desert tortoise; recovery units.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Portrait of Dr. James Graham Cooper, M.D. who discovered and described Xerobates agassizii (courtesy of the Archives of the California Academy of Sciences).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Distribution of the desert tortoises aligned with Gopherus agassizii. The locality of BYU 39706 from Baja California Sur is shown as a black dot. The location of the hybrid population described in McLuckie et al. (1999) is shown as a star.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Implied alignment of the mitochondrial DNA sequence data spanning the partial genes NADH3, tRNAArg and ND4L from tortoises of the Gopherus agassizii complex. BYU 39706 is the holotype of Gopherus lepidocephalus. USNM 7888 is the lectotype of Gopherus agassizii. GenBank sequence DQ649394 is the sequence of Gopherus agassizii in widespread group A of Murphy et al. (2007), DQ649398 is from narrowly distributed group B, and DQ649406 is a specimen of Gopherus morafkai from Tucson, Arizona. “n” indicates unresolved or ambiguous base pairs.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Dorsal view of the lectotype of Gopherus agassizii, USNM 7888. Black bar is 3 cm.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Ventral view of the holotype of Gopherus agassizii, USNM 7888. Black bar is 3 cm.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Anterior view of the holotype of Gopherus agassizii, USNM 7888. Black bar is 3 cm.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Posterior view of the holotype of Gopherus agassizii, USNM 7888.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Left, lateral view of the holotype of Gopherus agassizii, USNM 7888.
Figure 9.
Figure 9.
Dorsal view of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
Figure 10.
Figure 10.
Ventral view of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
Figure 11.
Figure 11.
Anterior view of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
Figure 12.
Figure 12.
Posterior view of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
Figure 13.
Figure 13.
Detail of head scales of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
Figure 14.
Figure 14.
Right, lateral view of the head of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
Figure 15.
Figure 15.
Detailed view of the anal scutes of the holotype of Gopherus morafkai, CAS 33867.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arizona Interagency Desert Tortoise Team (1996) Management plan for the Sonoran Desert population of the desert tortoise in Arizona. Arizona Interagency Desert Tortoise Team and Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, 55 pp.
    1. Auffenberg W, Franz R. (1978) Gopherus agassizii. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles 212:1-2.
    1. Averill-Murray RC. (2002) Reproduction of Gopherus agassizii in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 4:295-301.
    1. Averill-Murray RC, Averill-Murray A. (2005) Regional-scale estimation of density and habitat use of the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) in Arizona. Journal of Herpetology 39:65-72.
    1. Averill-Murray RC, Martin BE, Bailey SJ, Wirt EB. (2002a) Activity and behavior of the Sonoran desert tortoise in Arizona. In: Van Devender TR. (Ed) The Sonoran Desert Tortoise: Natural History, Biology, and Conservation. University of Arizona Press and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, 135–158.

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