Wildlifeof India
Brown Roofed Turtle
Tortoises & Freshwater Turtles
Photo: (c) Ashwin Viswanathan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY (May be cropped or resized)
Pangshura smithii
Basic stats
Habitat
Rivers of the Indus system, and rarely the Ganges
Range
Pakistan, north-western India (Indus system, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam) and Bangladesh
Size
Carapace 22cm
The brown roofed turtle is a freshwater turtle of the family Geoemydidae, endemic to South Asia. The snout is short, obtuse and only slightly prominent, and the fore limbs have large transverse scales. The carapace is pale olive-brown, with a usually blackish keel along the back, and the plastral shields and the lower surface of the marginals are dark brown bordered with yellow. The straight-line carapace length is about 22 cm (Wikipedia, general species account).
Two subspecies are recognised. Unlike most turtles, which have temperature-dependent sex determination, brown roofed turtles have ZZ/ZW sex determination. The Reptile Database lists the range as Pakistan, north-western India in the Indus system, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, and Bangladesh, rarely in the Ganges.
Quick answers
- What habitat does the Brown Roofed Turtle live in?
- Rivers of the Indus system, and rarely the Ganges
- Where is the Brown Roofed Turtle found?
- Pakistan, north-western India (Indus system, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam) and Bangladesh
- How big is the Brown Roofed Turtle?
- Carapace 22cm