Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10013
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    Three specimens of turtles

    Date
    1792
    Creator
    Friedrich Wilhelm Wunder (1742 - 1828, German) , Illustrator
    Object type
    Library reference
    Tracts/X51/7
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 266mm
    width (print): 212mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Zoology
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
    Description
    Zoological studies of three varieties of turtles from Africa and North America. Figure 1 ‘Testudo scabra’ [African helmeted turtle, Pelomedusa subrufa], viewed from above. Figures 2-3 ‘Testudo cinerea’ [Painted turtle Chrysemys picta] top and underside views. Figures 4-5 ‘Testudo scripta’ [Yellow-bellied slider, Trachemys scripta scripta] top and underside views.

    Plate 3 from the book Historia testudinum iconibus illustrata by Johann David Schoepff (Erlangen, 1792). The plate is discussed in: “A quarter millenium of uses and misuses of the turtle name Testudo scabra: identification of the type specimens of T. Scabra Linnaeus 1758(=Rhinoclemmys punctularia) and T. Scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792(=Trachemys scripta scripta)”, by G.J. Anders and John L Carr, Zootaxa 2226 (2009) pp.1-18.

    The illustrations are numbered on the plate. Inscribed below: “1. Test. Scabra Retz. 2.3. Test.cinera Brown. 4.5. Test. Scripta Thunb.” The plate has been trimmed for binding, resulting in the loss of artist information.
    Associated place
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