title: One extinct turtle species less: Pelusios seychellensis is not extinct, it never existed.
abstract: Pelusios seychellensis is thought to be a freshwater turtle species endemic to the island of Mahé, Seychelles. There are only three museum specimens from the late 19(th) century known. The species has been never found again, despite intensive searches on Mahé. Therefore, P. seychellensis has been declared as "Extinct" by the IUCN and is the sole putatively extinct freshwater turtle species. Using DNA sequences of three mitochondrial genes of the historical type specimen and phylogenetic analyses including all other species of the genus, we provide evidence that the description of P. seychellensis was erroneously based on a widely distributed West African species, P. castaneus. Consequently, we synonymize the two species and delete P. seychellensis from the list of extinct chelonian species and from the faunal list of the Seychelles.
authors.affiliation: Museum of Zoology, Senckenberg Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stuckas
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gemel
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Fritz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D030162:Reptilian Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012750:Seychelles; D014426:Turtles / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; C098483:NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; C075526:RNA, ribosomal, 12S; D030162:Reptilian Proteins; D045303:Cytochromes b; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase