Egyptian Tortoise For Sale

Description

Kleinmann’s tortoise (Testudo kleinmanni), also called commonly the Egyptian tortoise for sale, Leith’s tortoise, and the Negev tortoise, is a critically endangered species of cryptodire turtle in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to Libya and possibly extinct in Egypt. The species was once more widespread, but its numbers are now dwindling, and complete extinction in the wild is a looming threat unless more actions are taken to protect this species.

The specific name, kleinmanni, is in honor of Edouard Kleinmann [fr], a French stockbroker who collected the holotype in 1875.^[4]: 143

The specific name, werneri (of the synonym Testudo werneri), is in honor of Israeli herpetologist Yehudah L. Werner.^[4]: 282

Kleinmann’s tortoise is the smallest tortoise in the Northern Hemisphere. Females are larger than males; males are more slender and have a longer tail.

The carapace has a high dome, and ranges in color from ivory to pale gold to dark brown to pink or dull yellow. This allows the paler tortoise to stay in the desert heat for longer. It is also an effective camouflage in the desert.^{[citation needed]} The plastron is light yellow, often with two dark triangles on each abdominal scute.^{[citation needed]} The plastral scutes have dark edgings that fade with age.

The head and limbs are a very pale ivory-yellow to yellowish-brown colour.^{[citation needed]}

The proposed subgenus Pseudotestudo is invalid, based on immature characters. It has been proposed to unite this species with the marginated tortoise in the genus Chersus. These clearly share a common ancestor with the common tortoise (Greek tortoise).

The former two are somewhat more similar to each other than to the Greek tortoise regarding DNA sequence data. Considering biogeography, however, this is either due to (rather unlikely) dispersal across the Mediterranean, or the supposed “clade” is invalid and the similarity due to convergent evolution.^{[citation needed]}

The Negev subpopulation had been separated as a distinct species, “Negev tortoise” (Testudo werneri), as it did not appear to have distinct or strongly reduced haplotype diversity, consistent with the recent extinction of the Egyptian population and slow DNA sequence evolution rates in Testudo.

Baha el Din (2006) synonymized T. werneri due to lacking mtDNA differences between T. kleinmanni from western Libya compared to tortoises from the Negev Desert. In the 2017 checklist of turtles of the world, it remained a synonym.