Morphology and intraspecific variation in the skull and mandible of the slider turtle Trachemys dorbigni (Testudines, Emydidae)

A systematic compendium of turtle mandibular anatomy using digital dissections of soft tissue and osteology

Turtles are a charismatic reptile group with a peculiar body plan, which most notably includes the shell. Anatomists have often focused descriptive efforts on the shell and other strongly derived body parts, such as the akinetic skull, or the cervical vertebrae. Other parts of turtle osteology, like the girdles, limbs, and mandibles, are documented with less rigor and detail. The mandible is the primary skeletal element involved in food acquisition and initial food processing of turtles, and its features are thus likely linked to feeding ecology. In addition, the mandible of turtles is composed of up to seven bones (sometimes fused to as little as three) and has thus anatomical complexity that may be insightful for systematic purposes and phylogenetic research. Despite apparent complexity and diversity to the mandible of turtles, this anatomical system has not been systematically studied, not even in search of characters that might improve phylogenetic resolution. Here, we describe the mandibular osteology for all major subclades of extant turtles with the help of digitally dissected 3D models derived from high-resolution computed tomography (μCT) scans of 70 extant species. We provide 31 fully segmented mandibles, as well as 3D models of the mandibular musculature, innervation, and arterial circulation of the cryptodire Dermatemys mawii. We synthesize observed variation into 51 morphological characters, which we optimize onto a molecular phylogeny. This analysis shows some mandibular characters to have high systematic value, whereas others are highly homoplastic and may underlie ecological influences or other factors invoking variation.