TURTLES

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TURTLES
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Characteristics of the Turtles

• Outer shell encases the body.
• Anapsid skulls.
• No teeth. Tough keratinous beak present.
• Flippers present or stout club-like limbs.
• All are oviparous and lay eggs in nests or out on
  the ground.
• Often an elaborate courtship.

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Family Chaelydridae

• Large-headed freshwater turtles with powerful
  jaws.
• Head, neck, limbs cannot be retracted fully into
  shell.
• Not strong swimmerswalk on bottom.
• Freshwater, brackish ponds with abundant
  vegetation.
• Omnivore

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Chelydra serpentinaSnapping Turtle
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Kinosternidae

• Mud and musk turtlessmaller turtles of N.
  America.
• Plastron is usually reduced.
• Live in slow moving streams with vegetation.
• Bottom walkers.
• Release strong odor (they stink!)
• Carnivore

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Kinosternon subrubrumEastern Mud Turtle
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Sternotherus odoratusEastern Musk Turtle
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Family Emydidae

• Aquatic, semiaquatic, terrestrial turtles.
• Some have plastron with hinge.
• Vary in size from quite small to large size.
• Usually omnivores

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Pseudemys concinnaRiver Cooter
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Adult River Cooter
C on second costal scute.and other scutes.
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Adult River Cooter
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Chrysemys pictaPainted Turtle
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Chrysemys pictaPainted Turtle
Note arrangement of scutes on carapace, red along
margins, 2 yellow spots on each side of head,
light bands along edge of scutes.
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Trachemys scripta Yellowbelly Slider
Yellow mark behind eye and yellow lines on
carapace.
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(No Transcript)
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Clemmys guttata Spotted Turtle
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Clemmys muhlenbergiBog Turtle
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Terrapene carolinaBox Turtle
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Testudinidae

• Gopher, Galapagos, Aldabra tortoises and others.
• Commonly called tortoises.
• Land turtles with high domed shells.
• Stout limbs to support heavy bodies.
• Can withdraw totally inside shell.
• Herbivorous or omnivorous.
• Relatively small clutch size.

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Gopherus polyphemusGopher Tortoise
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Trionychidae

• Extremely dorsoventrally flattened bodies.
• Reduced bony portions of shell.
• Bones absent in periphery of carapace.
• Leathery skin covers bony plates with no
  keritinous scutes on shell.
• Snout bears proboscis.
• Long necks with webbed limbs.
• Aquatic, good swimmers, primarily carnivorous.

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Apalone spiniferaSpiny Softshell
Found in lakes and slow moving streams where
there are sand bars. Often lie in sand and mud
on bottom and extend neck so that nostrils are
above the water surface.