Melanochelys Gray, 1869

Garbin, Rafaella C., Bandyopadhyay, Saswati & Joyce, Walter G., 2020, A taxonomic revision of geoemydid turtles from Siwalik-age of India and Pakistan, European Journal of Taxonomy 652, pp. 1-67 : 40

Genus Melanochelys Gray, 1869

Type species

Melanochelys trijuga (Schweigger, 1812) .

Differential osteological diagnosis using shell characters

A member of Melanochelys can be diagnosed by having a small to medium sized, oval carapace (up to 30 cm in length), presence of three longitudinal keels, an octagonal second neural, neural III–VI with posterior short sides, a large first vertebral with lateral constriction, hexagonal second to fourth vertebral scutes, gular scutes that are longer than wide and an entoplastron that is intersected by the humeropectoral sulcus.