They are dark with the pale aureole along the middle of the lower edge. The marginals (scutes along the edge of the carapace) 'tuck under' along the sides and flare slightly over the limbs. The vertebral and costal scutes (the scutes along the center and sides of the carapace) are black or dark brown with a pale yellow areole in the center. Often, a high point over the hips is seen, with a small sloped section over the neck. They are fairly highly domed and smooth with a rather flat back (although the scutes may be raised or 'pyramided' in some individuals, especially captive specimens). Adult carapaces are generally an elongated oval with sides that are nearly parallel, although the sides of males may curve inwards. Red-footed tortoises show sex, regional, and individual variations in color, shell shape, and minor anatomical characteristics. No subspecies of red-footed tortoise are recognized, although many believe the species has five or more variants that may be subspecies or even separate species. Paulo Vanzolini believes it may have come from near the city of Manaus, Brazil, on the Rio Negro. The holotype was kept in the Zoologischen Sammlung des Bayerischen Staates in Munich, Germany, but was lost. It was originally identified by Johann Baptist von Spix in 1824. The species name carbonarius means 'coal-like' referring to a dark coal with glowing patches. Many of these generic names are still debated for example, no specific definition of Geochelone is given, and Chelonoidis is primarily used for geography rather than unique anatomic characteristics. Chelonoidis was distinguished from other Geochelone by their South American location, as well as the absence of the nuchal scute (the marginal centered over the neck) and the presence of a large, undivided supracaudal (the scute or scutes directly over the tail), as well as differences in the skull. That resulted in the formation or restoration of several genera: Aldabrachelys, Astrochelys, Cylindraspis, Indotestudo, Manouria, and Chelonoidis. In 1982, Roger Bour and Charles Crumly each separated Geochelone into different genera based on anatomic differences, especially in the skulls.
Few people used these terms until they were resurrected by Hewitt in 1933 and Loveridge and Williams in 1957.
He used the term Chelonoidis as a subgenus for the species from South America.
In 1835, Leopold Fitzinger used Geochelone to differentiate some non-Mediterranean tortoises, apparently based on size and lack of specific identifying characteristics such as the hinged shell in the African hingeback tortoises. Red footed tortoises were originally assigned to the genus Testudo (named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758) for a short time, but it soon became the term for turtles with high-domed shells, elephantine legs, and completely terrestrial habits-the tortoises. It is also called kati in Natú and sambó in Kiriri. In Portuguese, jabuti ( jaboti) refers to both the red-footed tortoise and the yellow-footed tortoise. Red-footed tortoises have many common names: red-leg, red-legged, or red-foot tortoise (often without the hyphen) and the savanna tortoise, as well as local names, such as carumbe or karumbe, which means 'slow moving' (Brazil, Paraguay), wayapopi or morrocoy ( Venezuela, Colombia), and variations of jabuti such as japuta and jabuti-piranga (Brazil, Argentina). 8 Conservation and relations with humans.6 Evolutionary history and fossil record.
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