DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jq2bvq8m2
title: A set of photographs documenting the osteology of extant trionychid turtles (Trionychidae) in natural history collections

description: A thorough understanding of the osteological evolution of trionychid
 turtles has long been hampered by poor access to comparative skeletal
 collections as specimens are scattered across the globe. To partially
 alleviate this situation, we here present a collection of photographs of
 608 trionychid specimens representing most currently accepted species.
 This collection is not the result of a coordinated effort. Instead,
 pictures were taken over the course of the last four decades using varying
 equipment and with different goals in mind. The photographs of each
 specimen are contained in a single folder, which is labelled using updated
 taxonomic attributions and collections numbers. Institutional acronyms are
 listed below. Most folders contain an image of the museum label. The vast
 majority of pictures are associated with a metric scale, but local coins
 were used when no scale was available. The relevant coins and their sizes
 are listed in the readme.
description: # A set of photographs documenting the osteology of extant trionychid
 turtles (Trionychidae) in natural history collections
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jq2bvq8m2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jq2bvq8m2) ## Description of the data and file structure **A set of photographs documenting the osteology of extant trionychid turtles (*Trionychidae*) in natural history collections** **Walter G. Joyce1, Julien Claude2, 3, Ilya Dziomber4, Léa C. Girard1, Jason J. Head5, Tyler R. Lyson6, Márton Rabi7, Juliana Sterli8, 9** 1 Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 3 Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution UM/CNRS/IRD/EPHE, Montpellier, France 4 Institute of Plant Sciences & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 5 Department of Zoology and University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 6 Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado, USA 7 Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany 8 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) 9 Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF), Trelew, Chubut, Argentina **Abstract** A thorough understanding of the osteological evolution of trionychid turtles has long been hampered by poor access to comparative skeletal collections as specimens are scattered across the globe. To partially alleviate this situation, we here present a collection of photographs of 608 trionychid specimens representing most currently accepted species. This collection is not the result of a coordinated effort. Instead, pictures were taken over the course of the last four decades using varying equipment and with different goals in mind. The photographs of each specimen are contained in a single folder, which is labelled using updated taxonomic attributions and collections numbers. Institutional acronyms are listed below. Most folders contain an image of the museum label. The vast majority of pictures are associated with a metric scale, but local coins were used when no scale was available. The relevant coins and their sizes are listed below as well. All specimens are assigned to one of the following currently recognized taxa: *Amyda* *cartilaginea*, *Amyda* *ornata*, *Apalone* *ferox*, *Apalone* *mutica*, *Apalone* *spinifera*, *Chitra* *chitra*, *Chitra* *indica*, *Chitra* *vandijki*, *Cyclanorbis* elegans, *Cyclanorbis* *senegalensis*, *Cycloderma* *aubryi*, *Cycloderma* *frenatum*, *Dogania* *subplana*, *Lissemys* *ceylonensis*, *Lissemys* *punctata*, *Lissemys* *scutata*, *Nilssonia* *formosa*, *Nilssonia* *gangetica*, *Nilssonia* *hurum*, *Nilssonia* *leithii*, *Nilssonia* *nigricans*, *Palea steindachneri*, *Pelochelys* *bibroni*, *Pelochelys* *cantorii*, *Pelodiscus* sp., *Rafetus* *euphraticus*, *Rafetus* *swinhoei*, and *Trionyx* *triunguis*. **Institutional Abbreviations** **AMNH**, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA **CUMZ**, Chulalongkorn University Museum of Natural History, Bangkok, Thailand **EOWL**, EO Wilson Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique **FMNH**, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA **IVPP**, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China **KU**, University of Kansas Natural History Museum, Lawrence, Kansas, USA **MCZ**, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA **MNHN**, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France **MTD**, Museum für Tierkunde Dresden, Dresden, Germany **NHMB**, Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Basel, Switzerland **NHMUK**, Natural History Museum, London, UK **NMB**, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Berlin, Germany **NMW**, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria **OMNH**, Sam Noble Museum, Norman, Oklahoma, USA **PCHP**, Peter C. H. Pritchard Collection at the Turtle Conservancy, Ojai, California, USA **RH**, Ren Hirayama Collection at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan **ROM**, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada **SMF**, Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt, Germany **TMM**, Texas Memorial Museum, Austin, Texas, USA **UCMP**, University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, California, USA **UCMVZ**, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, USA **UMMZ**, Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA **USNM**, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA **YPM**, Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, Connecticut, USA **ZMC**, Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark **ZSI**, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India **Coins as Scales** **NHMB**, 2 franc coin, Switzerland, 27.4 mm; 5 franc coin, Switzerland, 31.45 mm **NHMUK**, 1 pound coin, UK, round edition, 23.43mm; 2 pound coin, UK, 28.4 mm **OMNH**, 25 cent coin, USA, 24.26 mm **SMF**, 1 Euro coin, Euro-Zone, 23.25mm **TMM**, 25 cent coin, USA, 24.26 mm **ZSI**, 5 rupee coin, India, 23.0 mm **Acknowledgements:** We would like to thank the following list of people for providing us with access to specimens under their care: AMNH (David Kazirian), CUMZ (Wichase Khonsue, Kumhtorn Thirakhupt), FMNH (Alan Resetar), IVPP (Li Lu), KU (John Simmons), MCZ (José Rosado), MNHN (Salvador Boilon, Roger Bour, Cristine Lefèvre), MTD (Markus Auer, Uwe Fritz (MTD), NMB (Frank Tillack), NHMB (Loïc Costeur), NHMUK (Colin McCarthy), NMW (Richard Gemel, Silke Schweiger), OMNH (Jessa L. Watters), PCHP (Sibille Hart Pritchard, Peter C. H. Pritchard, Nathanael Stanek), RH (Ren Hirayama, Chisako Sakata), ROM (Kevin Seymore), SMF (Linda Mogk), TMM (Chris Sagebiel), UCMP (Pat Holroyd), UCMVZ, (Jimmy McGuire), UMMZ (Greg Schneider), USNM (Jeremy Jacobs, Addison Wynn), YPM (Gregory Watkins-Colwell), and ZSI (Supriya Nandy). We thank Jason Denlinger, James Gardiner, and Mark-Oliver Rödel for donating pictures to this project. **Funding Information:** The assembly of this dataset was supported a grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation to WGJ (SNF SNF 200021_207377).