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Australia is home to an amazingly diverse freshwater turtle fauna which includes more then 25 species and an array of subspecies of side-necked turtles and the enigmatic pig-nosed turtle. Twenty years later this book picks up where John Cann´s landmark 1998 "Australian Freshwater Turtles" left off. It reviews new information on the biology of Australian chelid turtles generated in the intervening years, presenting new perspectives and insights into their history and taxonomy, and it provides an introduction to the freshwater turtles of neighbouring New Guinea and Irian Jaya to Australia´s north. Probably the greatest realisation of the past two decades has been the complexity of the biology and ecology of Australia´s freshwater turtles, and sadly the extent to which man-made threats endanger their existence, with a number identified as being of particular conservation concern.

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