Pseudemys scripta in West Virginia: Archeological and Modern Records

A population of Pseudemys scripta is reported in west- central West Virginia and materialfrom an archeological site at Mount Carbon (dating about 820-1070 AD) corroborates this first record for the state; all of these localities are in the Kanawha River Valley. Aqua- tic prehistoric dispersal routes in the Midwest are discussed and it is suggested that this species used the Mahomet-Teays River, formed dur- ing the Nebraskan glacial advance, to reach southern Ohio and West Virginia from the Mississippi Valley. Other animals having similar distributional patterns are mentioned. The pond slider, Pseudemys scripta, has a wide distribution, from eastern Virginia to northwestern South America. In the Midwest this turtle ranges up the Mississippi River, throughout Illinois and much of Indiana. There are several disjunct colonies in Ohio and Michigan (Conant, 1958), and archeological records from well beyond the present range of the species have recently been reported from Wisconsin and Michigan (Adler, 1968). Like certain other aquatic species of rep- tiles and amphibians to be mentioned below, isolated populations of the pond slider may yet be found in other places in the Midwest.