Chronology of Gonadal Development in the Tropical Species of Freshwater Turtle

Gonadal development of the freshwater turtle has been extensively reviewed by Ewert (1985) in the renowned book series “Biology of the Reptilia (volume 14A)”. Albeit the comprehensive treatment of the reptilian development in this book chapter, some information is not entirely applicable to the tropically distributed species. In this article, chronology of gonadal development was examined in Malayemys macrocephala, a common tropical freshwater turtle. Investigation revealed four chronological phases of gonadal development: (i) germ cell migration, (ii) genital ridge appearance, (iii) testicular formation, and (iv) ovarian formation. These results can be summarized as a chronological diagram of the developmental stages in embryos of M. macrocephala. The results also suggest that testicular and ovarian development involved proliferation and apoptosis at different stages. This outline of gonadal development could be applied to validate the use of this species as an animal model for research in developmental biology.

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