Testudinide
Testudinide names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Testudinide the land tortoises
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the land tortoises; tributed in both hemispheres, but aba family of Chelonia, very widely dissent from Australia. The carapace is very convex; claws blunt; feet clubshaped, adapted for progression on land only; neck retractile . They are vegetable cies belong to the type genus Testudo. feeders, and the greater part of the spe- In some classifications the family includes the freshwater tortoises, now gendœ. The family appears in the Miocene erally made a separate family of Emydi- America. of Europe and the Eocene of North It is notable in history as the place in which was signed the treaty terminating the war of the Bavarian Succession, on May 13, 1799. Pop. about 25,000.
Testudinide the land tortoises
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the land tortoises; a family of Chelonia, very widely distributed in both hemispheres, but absent from Australia. The carapace is very convex; claws blunt; feet clubshaped, adapted for progression on land only; neck retractile. They are vegetable feeders, and the greater part of the species belong to the type genus Testudo. In some classifications the family includes the freshwater tortoises, now generally made a separate family of Emydigaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have de. The family appear appears in the Miocene of Europe and the Eocene of North America.
Testudinide the land tortoises
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the land tortoises; a family of Chelonia, Chelonia, very widely distributed in both hemispheres, but absent from Australia. The carapace is very convex; claws blunt; feet clubshaped, adapted for progression on land only; neck retractile. They are vegetable feeders, and the greater part of the species belong to the type genus Testudo. In some classifications the family includes the freshwater tortoises, now generally made a separate family of Emydidœ. The family appears in the Miocene of Europe and the Eocene of North America.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that "the greater part of the species belong to the type genus Testudo"; that catch-all genus has since been broken up, and most tortoises are now placed in genera such as Geochelone, Chelonoidis (the Galapagos forms), Gopherus (the American gopher tortoises), Aldabrachelys, Centrochelys, Stigmochelys, Kinixys and Malacochersus, with Testudo left holding a handful of Mediterranean species. The family's separation from the freshwater Emydidae, which Collier's reported as only "generally" accepted, is now settled, and DNA work has confirmed the tortoises as a distinct lineage rather than a grade of pond turtles that took to land. The one thing the 1921 account could not anticipate is how endangered the group would become: the giant tortoises are among the most threatened reptiles on earth, and Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island Galapagos tortoise, died in 2012. The basic description holds up well, including the absence of native land tortoises from Australia and the blunt, club-shaped feet.
Written for this edition, 2026.