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Emydidae (Latin emys (freshwater tortoise) + Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos, “appearance, resemblance”)) is a family of testudines (turtles) that includes close to 50 species in 10 genera. [3] [4] Members of this family are commonly called terrapins, pond turtles, or marsh turtles. [1]
General American usage agrees; turtle is often a general term; tortoise is used only in reference to terrestrial turtles or, more narrowly, only those members of Testudinidae, the family of modern land tortoises; and terrapin may refer to turtles that are small and live in fresh and brackish water, in particular the diamondback terrapin ...
Terrapins do not form a taxonomic unit and may not be closely related. Many belong to the families Geoemydidae and Emydidae. The name "terrapin" is derived from torope, a word in an Algonquian language [1] that referred to the species Malaclemys terrapin (the Diamondback terrapin). It appears that the term became part of common usage during the ...
In the UK, tortoises are land-dwellers, while turtles and terrapins are aquatic (terrapins are slightly fonder of the land than turtles). But in the US, turtle covers all three.
The word turtle is borrowed from the French word tortue or tortre 'turtle, tortoise'. [3] It is a common name and may be used without knowledge of taxonomic distinctions. In North America, it may denote the order as a whole. In Britain, the name is used for sea turtles as opposed to freshwater terrapins and land-dwelling tortoises. In Australia ...
The red-eared slider or red-eared terrapin (Trachemys scripta elegans) is a subspecies of the pond slider (Trachemys scripta), a semiaquatic turtle belonging to the family Emydidae. It is the most popular pet turtle in the United States, is also popular as a pet across the rest of the world, and is the most invasive turtle. [ 2 ]
The diamondback terrapin or simply terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) is a species of terrapin native to the brackish coastal tidal marshes of the East Coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico coast, as well as in Bermuda. [6] It belongs to the monotypic genus Malaclemys.
The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis), also called commonly the European pond terrapin and the European pond tortoise, is a species of long-living freshwater turtle in the family Emydidae. [3] The species is endemic to the Western Palearctic .