Southern Africa has the riches! diversity of land tortoises in the world, as well as an important radiation of pelomedusid terrapins. Total species richness has two epicentres, including the Transvaallowveld and adjacent KwaZulu/Natal (owing to the prevalence of pelomedusid terrapins) and the Eastern and southwestern Cape (owing to small testudinids). The area encompassing Lesotho, Transkei and adjacent regions, lacks testudinids for unknown reasons. Archaeological data indicates that this gap is natural, and not the result of man-induced extinctions. Endemic species are clustered in the Cape, whilst the few threatened species are more widely distributed. The majority of species is well protected in existing reserves. The small number of chelonian species in southern Africa and their relatively well-known distributions, test the efficacy of an iterative reserve selection algorithm. The presence of many allopatric (or nearly so) congeneric species leads to the selection of ~erative reserves that protect peripheral populations. To avoid this, marginal records and isolated, peripheral populations should be excluded from the analysis. Suidelike Afrika het die rykste diversiteit van grondlewende skilpaaie ter wereld, sowel as 'n belangrike uitstraling van pelomedusiede varswaterskilpaaie. Die totale spesierykheid het twee episentrums, naamlik die Transvaalse laeveld en aangrensende KwaZulu/Natal (te danke aan die oorwig van pelomedusiede varswaterskilpaaie) en die Oos-en suid-westelike Kaap (te danke aan die klein testudiniede soorte). Die gebied wat Lesotho, die Transkei en aangrensende streke insluit, het om onbekende redes geen testudiniede nie. Argeologiese data wys dat hierdie leemte natuurlik is, en nie die resultaat van mens-veroorsaakte uitsteJWings. En-demiese spesies is in die Kaap gekonsentreer, terv.tyl die enkele bedreigde spesies wyer versprei is. Die meeste spesies word binne bestaande bewaringsgebiede goed beskerm. Die klein hoeveelheid cheloniese spesies in suidelike Afrika en hulle betreklik bekende verspreidings, het die doeltreffendheid van die herhalende bewaringsgebiedseleksieprosedure getoets. Die teenwoordigheid van baie allopatriese (of byna) gelyksoortige spesies het veroorsaak dat bewaringsgebiede wat omliggende allopatriese populasies beskerm, geselekteer word. Om dit te voorkom, behoort margin ale aantekenings en ge'isoleerde omringende populasies van die analise uitgesluit te word.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.