Are Fly River Turtles a species of softshell?

[creepiecrawlie]

I was wondering if they are just a species of softshell because they have a lot of similarities like the shell. Please post fast.

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

Fly rivers are the only living member of Carettochelyidae. Meaning they are not a species of Softshell. Although, Cladistic studies of both morphological and molecular characters place them as a close relative to the soft-shelled turtles. Skeletal characters include fusion of the left and right premaxillae, lack of bony suturing between the carapace and plastron, strong suturing of the ribs to the vertebra, and three or fewer clawed digits.
There are other skeletal characters of systematic interest but I am sure you got the point..
May I ask why you needed the information so fast?

[Scales Zoo]

Or, if you want to read more what KrokadilyanGuy3 said (ripped off), you can read it in it's original form here

http://www.digimorph.org/specimens/C...lys_insculpta/

Ryan

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

He did have a specific question..
However, I did forget this particular site is all about the plagiarizing thing. My mystake on both accords.

Bever- Fly rivers are the only living member of Carettochelyidae. Meaning they are not a species of Softshell. Although, Cladistic studies of both morphological and molecular characters place them as a close relative to the soft-shelled turtles. Skeletal characters include fusion of the left and right premaxillae, lack of bony suturing between the carapace and plastron, strong suturing of the ribs to the vertebra, and three or fewer clawed digits.
There are other skeletal characters of systematic interest but I am sure you got the point..

[creepiecrawlie]

Yes I do get it now and thank you.