Adults range from 3 to 5 inches cm in carapace length. They are known to feed on crustaceans such as crayfish , mollusks, aquatic insects, and seeds. They are not strong swimmers and usually crawl along the bottom. They are more terrestrial than their relatives, the musk turtles, and hibernate in forests buried an inch or two below the surface.
They are able to tolerate brackish water and are sometimes encountered in salt marshes. Reproduction: Mud turtles lay between 2 and 5 eggs during June or July. Eastern mud turtle eggs are hard shelled and do not absorb water like most turtle eggs. The young hatch in August or September. Miscellaneous: Hatchling mud turtles are often mistaken for snapping turtles.
Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia. A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome. Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available.
Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands. Alderton, D. Bartlett, R. New York: University Press of Florida. Bellairs, A. The Life of Reptiles. Bertin, L. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Animal Life. Bickham, J. Springer, B. Southwestern Association of Naturalists , Carr, A. Handbook of Turles. Christiansen, J. Journal of Herpetology , Vol. Herpetologica , Vol. Conant, R. Collins, I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Ernst, C. Turtles of the United States.
Fitzsimmons, K. Frazer, N. Turtle Conservation. New York: Smithsonian Institution Press. Harless, M. Turtles: Perspectives and Research.
Iverson, J. Kofron, C. Pope, C. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. Schmidt, K. Reptiles: Mud Turtles. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.. Second edition. Ewert, M. An apparent co-occurrence of genetic and environmental sex determination in a turtle. American Zoologist A in Wilson, D. Mushinsky, and E. Kinosternon baurii — striped mud turtle. Meylan, editor. Biology and conservation of Florida turtles. Chelonian Research Monographs No. Florida Natural Areas Inventory.
Field guide to the rare animals of Florida. Karl, S. Phylogeography and Systematics of the Mud Turtle, Kinosternon baurii. Copeia 3 Iverson, J. Reproduction in freshwater and terrestrial turtles of north Florida. The lower jaw usually has a sharply curved beak. Coloration and Pattern: Carapace brown, olive, yellowish, or black, and usually patternless; ventral surface of marginals yellowish to brown; bridge brown; plastron brown or yellow with black or brown smudges; skin brown to gray, but sometimes black; limbs usually unpatterned; yellowish to white markings on head highly variable usually mottling on sides and dorsum but also may form an irregular stripe that does not extend to tip of snout; tomial surfaces of upper and lower jaws yellow to black.
Sexual Dimorphism: Adult males averaged Adult females averaged Sexual dimorphism index was Males have larger heads, deeper posterior plastral notches, longer tails with the cloacal opening extending beyond the posterior margin of the carapace precloacal distance was mm, ave. Females have short tails with the anal opening at or near the tail base precloacal distance was mm, ave. Both sexes have spine-tipped tails. Juveniles: The carapace of hatchlings has 3 indistinct keels, and it and the skin are black.
Each marginal has an orange spot. The plastron is reddish with an irregular black figure that may cover nearly the entire surface or be narrow with black lines along the plastral seams.
The black head has light stripes or is mottled. The snout is blunt. Hatchlings were Confusing Species: Sternotherus odoratus has a smaller plastron with a variable amount of white skin exposed between the scutes, a squarish pectoral scute, and a posterior plastral lobe width of Kinosternon baurii in Virginia usually has 2 distinct yellowish stripes on each side of the head that extend to the tip of the snout, and sometimes 3 light carapacial stripes.
Geographic Variation: There is no discernible geographic variation in body size and scutellation in Virginia. A study of geographic variation throughout the entire range of K.
The three subspecies and K. Biology: Kinosternon subrubrum occupies a wide variety of aquatic habitats, including ponds, lakes, creeks, swamps, freshwater and brackish marshes, ditches, and boggy areas. They avoid large, deep bodies of water and fast-moving water. Preferred habitat is shallow, slow-moving water, with aquatic or emergent vegetation and a soft organic substrate.
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