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The yellow-footed tortoise (''Chelonoidis denticulata''), also known as the Brazilian giant tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae and is closely related to the red-footed tortoise (''C. carbonaria''). It is found in the Amazon Basin of South America. With an average length of 40 cm (15.75 in) and the largest known specimen at 94 cm (37 in), this is the sixth-largest tortoise species on Earth, after the Galapagos tortoise, the Aldabra tortoise, the African spurred tortoise (''Geochelone sulcata'', typical size 76 cm (30 in)), the Leopard tortoise, and the Asian forest tortoise (''Manouria emys emys'', typical size 60 cm (23.6 in)). == Taxonomy == The yellow-footed tortoise is also called the yellow-foot or yellow-legged tortoise, the Brazilian giant tortoise, or South American forest tortoise, as well as local names such as ''morrocoy'', ''woyamou'' or ''wayamo'', or some variation of ''jabuta''. Many of the local names are shared with the similar red-footed tortoise.〔Vinke 2008, p. 31-33〕 Originally, Karl Linnaeus assigned all turtles and tortoises to the genus ''Testudo'' and identified this species as ''Testudo denticulata'' in 1766 with ''testudo'' meaning turtle, and ''denticulata'' meaning 'tooth-like', referring to the jagged or serrated edges of the shell. Soon the term ''Testudo'' was only being used for tortoises as opposed to all chelonians, with tortoises defined by completely terrestrial behaviors, heavy shells, and elephant-like limbs with nails but no visible toes. The species got several other names, as well, for several reasons such as difficulty in distinguishing it from the red-footed, confusion over locations, researchers thinking they had discovered a new species in collections or in the field, etc. Leopold Fitzinger created the genus ''Geochelone'', meaning 'earth turtle' for medium-to-large tortoises that did not come from the Mediterranean area (which remained ''Testudo''), or have other special characteristics such as the hinged shells of the ''Kinixys'' genus. Fitzinger further used the term ''Chelonoidis'' as a subgenus to categorize ''Geochelone'' from South America. Neither term was widely used until they were resurrected by researchers such as Williams in 1960.〔Vinke 2008, p. 16-18〕 Researchers such as Roger Bour and Charles Crumly separated ''Geochelone'' into different genera based largely on their skulls. They created or re-established several genera- ''Aldabrachelys'', ''Astrochelys'', ''Cylindraspis'', ''Indotestudo'', ''Manouria'', and ''Chelonoidis''. The debate is on-going over the definitions and validity of some of these genera. ''Chelonoidis'' is primarily defined as being from South America, lacking a nuchal scute (the marginal scute located over the neck) and a large, undivided supracaudal (the scute or scutes directly over the tail).〔Crumly〕 ''Chelonoidis'' is made up of two very different-looking groups- the ''C. carbonaria'' group with the yellow-footed and red-footed tortoises; and the ''C. chilensis'' group with the Galapagos tortoises (''C. niger''), Argentine tortoise (''C. chilensis''), and Chaco tortoise (''C. petersi''). The taxonomic and evolutionary relationship of these two groups is poorly understood.〔Vinke 2008, p. 19.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yellow-footed tortoise」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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