Mauremys pritchardi is an intergeneric hybrid turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

 in the Geoemydidae

Geoemydidae

Geoemydidae is the largest and most diverse family in the order Testudines with about 70 species. It includes the Eurasian pond and river turtles and Neotropical wood turtles.-Characteristics:...

 family. It was described to be from Myanmar (where neither of the parental species occurs apparently) and has been found in the wild in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and is produced to some extent in Chinese turtle farms. It was listed as data deficient in the IUCN Red List

IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...

 before its actual origin became known.

The parents of this hybrid are the Chinese Pond Turtle

Chinese Pond Turtle

The Chinese pond turtle, Reeves' turtle or Chinese three-keeled pond turtle is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae . It is found in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. This specific turtle is semi-aquatic so it loves to bask in the sun on rocks or logs and can often be found leaving water to...

 and the Asian Yellow Pond Turtle. While it is not unusual for perfectly valid geoemydid species to arise from hybridization, recognition as a species would require that the hybrids are fertile and constitute a phenotypically distinct and self-sustaining lineage. This does yet appear to be the case in this "species" as recently (Kosukawa et al. 2006) a population of these turtles has been found in Japan. The hybrid offspring is perfectly fertile, which is not the case in Mauremys iversoni for example, another intergeneric hybrid, and has been bred in F2 already, all juveniles resemble their parents (and not the parental species) perfectly as well. Genetic studies verify its hybrid origin but are unsure of the time of creation, according to Wink et al. 2001 it might well be a very ancient hybrid while Parham et al. 2001 suppose that it is of rather recent origin.

See also

• Fujian Pond Turtle
  Fujian Pond Turtle
  The Fujian Pond Turtle is a possibly also naturally occurring intergeneric hybrid turtle in the Geoemydidae family produced in larger numbers by Chinese turtle farms as a "copy" of the Golden Coin Turtle Cuora trifasciata. It appears to occur in China and Vietnam...
  
  
• Ocadia glyphistoma
  Ocadia glyphistoma
  "Ocadia glyphistoma" is an intergeneric hybrid turtle in the Geoemydidae family . Originally described as a new species supposedly endemic to Guangxi/China; it was classified as Data Deficient in the IUCN Red List....
  
  
• Ocadia philippeni
• Cuora serrata
  Cuora serrata
  Cuora serrata, originally described as Cuora galbinifrons serrata by Iverson & Mccord and later considered a distinct species by Obst & Fritz are hybrids as shown by the genetic studies of Stuart & Parham . These hybrids are bred in the wild as mentioned Buskirk et al. ad documented for the...