A charming reptile with extraordinary climbing abilities, indigenous to highland streams of several localities in mainland Asia.
I sought the expertise of two Platysternon specialists, who remarked that the zoo's specimen appears to be of the nominate variety, native to central / southern China & Hong Kong.
A study published in 2019 implied that there may be 2 distinct species of big-headed turtles, as the subspecies peguense displays greater genetic differences from the two other variants, likely contributed by the uplift of the Tibetan plateau during the Miocene epoch.
