Thanks for taking the time to look! I think you may be right, although there are unfortunately cases for both species that leave me puzzled. And definitely yes on the cat emoji.
Here's how I'm looking at Winnie right now (info taken from the sources above):
For P.s. subrufa:
-Broad first vertebral scute
-Shell more circular than oblong
-Head coloring seems more consistent with subrufa (strong dark/light contrast between top half/bottom half)
For P.s. olivacea:
-"...pectoral scutes are widely separated by the femoral scutes." - Definitely so on this one; glad we were seeing the same thing here.
-Plastron coloring fans out in a gradient-like manner, which seems consistent with olivacea
Unknowns:
-I'm just not sure what he means by a "hinge": "The easiest way to tell Pelomedusa from Pelusios is the fact that Pelomedusa has no hinge between the pectoral and abdominal scutes on the plastron. Because of this, the bridge (the area where the plastron meets the carapace) is formed by both the pectoral and abdominal scutes whereas in Pelusios the bridge is formed only by the abdominal scutes, the pectoral scutes being included in the anterior lobe."
-Shell coloration seems to be hit or miss... depending on the photo she looks more like one than the other
I think the more I stare at all this the more confused I get, lol. Maybe some of these things weigh more heavily than others? She is definitely a "she" though - at least we know that. Like a traitor I signed up for a
http://turtleforum.com/ account, ha (don't worry, my loyalties are here! xD). There's one guy over there in particular that seems like he really knows ASN terrapins forwards and backwards... I might link him to this thread over there.
Have a great evening!
steve wrote:According to
http://www.pelomedusa.com/Subspecies.html I'd stick with
P.s. olivacea, where they state "pectoral scutes are widely separated by the femoral scutes."
Cute cat
We should at cat emoji to the forum.