Kinosternon scorpioides scorpioides Linnaeus , 1766 : range extension and first records in the upper Paraguay River basin and Mato Grosso do Sul , Brazil

The Scorpion mud turtle (Kinosternon scorpioides) is the chelonian species with the largest distribution range in the Neotropics. The species is reportedly distributed as two disjunct populations in South America: the Amazonian and the Chacoan populations. We present new records of K. s. scorpioides which represent an expansion of the species distribution, with the first records for the Upper Paraguay River basin, the first records for the Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, as well as an evidence that the two previously documented populations area not disjunct.

The Scorpion mud turtle (Kinosternon scorpioides) is the most widely distributed chelonian species in the Neotropics (Ernst and Barbour 1989;Cabrera and Colantonio 1997;Berry and Iverson 2001; Turtle Taxonomy Working Group 2009; Berry Iverson, and 2011).The species is known to occur from Panamá and El Salvador, along the Caribbean coastal range to the northeastern Atlantic coast in Brazil, covering the whole Amazon rainforest, the eastern ranges of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and reaching its southernmost occurrence in central and southern Bolivia, northern Paraguay and northern Argentina in the Chaco range (Berry and Iverson 2001).Until recently, the species from Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay was considered disjunct from its conspecific correlate from the Amazon basin, and was separated as the subspecies K. scorpioides serei by Berry (1978) from K. s. scorpioides.However, Cabrera and Colantonio (1997) argued that there is no morphological basis for splitting these subspecies, as well as other possible ones such as K. s. carajasensis, from the K. s. scorpioides, leading them to argue that K. scorpioides should be considered a monotypic species from southern Mexico to the whole of its distribution South American.
Distribution maps and range descriptions have extended the species in a relatively narrow band from the Amazon basin towards northern Argentina and northern Paraguayan Chaco region, crossing central Bolivia in the foothills of the Andes (Freiberg 1967;Iverson 1992;Norman 1994;Berry and Iverson 2011;Acosta et al. 2013).None of these maps present records or projections indicating that K. scorpioides occurs in the Upper Paraguay River basin, located in eastern Bolivia (eastern Chiquitana region) and in western Brazil (Pantanal wetland region) (see Iverson 1992;Berry and Iverson 2011).Recently, an extension was documented in the northern Mato Grosso state, Brazil (Costa et al. 2010) We present new records of K. s. scorpioides outside of the Amazon basin, which represent both an extension of the species range to eastern Bolivia and the first documented records in the Upper Paraguay River basin, as well as the first record of the species for the Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil.We found two individuals in January 2008, one hatchling and one adult male, in a temporary stream at the Santa Teresa mountain range (18°16′49″ S, 057°31′05″ W), in the western border of the Pantanal wetland.The specimens were documented via photograph and released in the same location in which The habitat in which the HCPAP 500 specimen was recorded at Santa Teresa mountains is characterized by a seasonal forest stream which retains some water pools during the dry season.Local residents report that the turtles are easily seen in artificial ponds constructed to retain water from the existing streams to provide water for the cattle in the dry season.K. scorpioides is locally known as "galápago", representing a clear influence of the Spanish spoken in Bolivia, whose border is located a few kilometers from the Santa Teresa Ranch, as well as from Corumbá and the Urucum Mountains.
The flexibility of K. scorpioides in using seasonal aquatic habitat is well known (Pereira et al. 2007;Vogt et al. 2009;Berry and Iverson 2011), including wetlands from the semi-arid Chaco region of Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia.Despite records obtained in the western fringe of the 140.000 km 2 Pantanal wetland, no records exist from within the floodplains.However, the Pantanal is largely seasonal, and the occurrence of the species there would not be a surprise.Given the lack of consistent inventories in a vast region in central South America, it seems not realist to defend a discontinuous southern they were observed (Figure 1).The pictures are cataloged in the database of the Embrapa Pantanal Vertebrate Collection (HCPAPI 489 and HCPAPI 490).Additionally, we received one adult individual found the downtown Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, (19°00′27″ S, 057°39′05″ W) in June 2009 which is preserved as a complete voucher in the Embrapa Pantanal Vertebrate Collection (HCPAP 491).The exact origin of this specimen is unknown, but local informants are aware of the occurrence of this turtle in small, permanent or seasonal streams running from the Urucum mountain range, located 15 km from Corumbá.Finally, in March 2014 we found another adult male at Santa Teresa Ranch, in the same location as the above-mentioned released individuals.Although this specimen bore evidence of carnivore mammal attack, it was complete and preserved as a voucher at the Embrapa Pantanal Vertebrate Collection (HCPAP 500).Our findings represent a range expansion of more than 300 km from the nearest known locations from the south (see Berry and Iverson 2011), and more than 800 km from the nearest records in the north (see Costa et al. 2010) (Figure 2).population of K. s. scorpioides in the Chaco based solely on the lack of occurrence data.Rather, we propose that this subspecies might have a continuous distribution across South America from the Amazon basin to northern Chaco region, and thus questioning the hypothesis from Pritchard and Trebbau (1984) and Pritchard (1989) who suggested that the disjunct distribution of the Amazon basin and the Chaco region is a result of forest expansion after the Pleistocene.Table 1.Records of Kinosternon s. scorpioides south of the Amazon rainforest through the Chaco region, their localities, countries and source of information (voucher numbers and publications).See the distribution of records in the Figure 2.
, again without records reaching the Upper Paraguay River basin.Herpetological surveys in the southernmost region of the Pantanal, in the border with Paraguay, have not included K. scorpioides in the findings (Souza et al. 2010), despite the species have been documented in the Northern areas of the Paraguay (Métrailler 2003) at less than 200 km to the west of the Souza et al. (2010) study area.
NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIONTomas et al. | Kinosternon scorpioides scorpioides: first records for the Mato Grosso do Sul

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Distribution of known localities for Kinosternon s. scorpioides south of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.The drainage shown in the figure represent the main rivers of the Upper Paraguay River basin, which form the Pantanal wetland (in the center of the map).MT: Mato Grosso state, Brazil.MS: Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil.RO: Rondônia state, Brazil.