Acanthochelys

Acanthochelys is a genus of turtles, the spiny swamp turtles, in the family Chelidae, subfamily Chelinae, found in South America. Until recently, the species of this genus were considered to be members of the genus Platemys, but were moved to the resurrected genus originally described by Gray (1873) based on the type species by monotypy Acanthochelys spixii.^[2]

Acanthochelys
Black spine-necked turtle (A. spixii)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Pleurodira
Family:	Chelidae
Subfamily:	Chelinae
Genus:	Acanthochelys Gray 1873[1]
Species
Acanthochelys macrocephala Acanthochelys pallidipectoris Acanthochelys radiolata Acanthochelys spixii

Taxonomy

Current nomenclature for this genus follows that of van Dijk et al. (2012):^[3]

• Big-headed pantanal swamp turtle (A. macrocephala Rhodin, Mittermeier, and McMorris 1984)^[4]
• Chaco side-necked turtle (A. pallidipectoris Freiberg 1945)^[5]
• Brazilian radiolated swamp turtle (A. radiolata Mikan 1820)^[6]
• Black spine-neck swamp turtle (A. spixii Duméril and Bibron 1835)^[7]