Rio Grande cooter | |
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Rio Grande Cooter at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas | |
A baby Rio Grande Cooter from Kinney County, Texas | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Testudines |
Suborder: | Cryptodira |
Superfamily: | Testudinoidea |
Family: | Emydidae |
Genus: | Pseudemys |
Species: | P. gorzugi
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Binomial name | |
Pseudemys gorzugi | |
Synonyms [3] | |
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The Rio Grande cooter (Pseudemys gorzugi) is a species of turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is native to northeastern Mexico and the adjacent southwestern United States.
The Rio Grande cooter is found in the Rio Grande drainage of Mexico ( Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas), New Mexico, and Texas. [2] [3]
The preferred natural habitat of P. gorzugi is freshwater wetlands, at altitudes of 259–1,082 m (850–3,550 ft). [1] [4]
The specific name, gorzugi, is in honor of George R. Zug, the Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles at the National Museum of Natural History. [5] [6]