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Spiny Softshell Turtle

Apalone spinifera

Photo by LisaPowers
Published on Project Noah
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32.3182, -86.9023

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Comments (43)
LisaPowers
Thanks everyone! These are very interesting turtles.
JillBlack
Congratulations Lisa on SOTD wonderful photos
Liam
Great spotting, Lisa! Congrats on SOTD!
AshleyT
Congrats Lisa, love softshells :)
LisaPowers
Thanks everyone! It was a rare opportunity to be able to photograph a male and female together. These were temporary captives that had been captured prior to a bridge replacement. They were released back onsite when the bridge foundation was completed.
RiekoS
Great spotting. They are really nice. Congratulations !
KdonGalay
Happy World Turtle Day! Congratulations
KarenL
What a cool looking turtle! Congratulations Lisa, we have chosen this as our World Turtle Day spotting of the day! Thank you for sharing your great collection of herps, and for all of your contributions to the community! The spiny softshell turtle is one of the largest freshwater turtle species in North America. It gets its name from the spiny, cone-like projections on the leading edge of its carapace. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152844021015603&set=a.10152383557885603.943728.10150120463815603&type=1 https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/337759416478728194
Carol Snow Milne 2
WOW! Fantastic series. I love the turtle. Great first photo to really show his facial features. So cute.
drP
Wow! What a beauty!
LisaPowers
Thanks everyone! They are one of my favorite species of turtle!
Mandy Hollman
Funny-looking, cute turtles :) You spot some very interesting critters!
Carol Snow Milne
What a great series of photos! The first one looks so Pixar. Great! I love it!
ChimeTsetan
beautiful... looks very much similar to the mud flapshell turtles of India. :)
auntnance123
All very interesting. They are quite handsome turtles.
ceherzog
Thanks for the excellent info, Lisa.
LisaPowers
They are wild turtles that were caught in a turtle trap during a research project and were temporarily held (< 3 days) for photographic purposes. They were released back into the wild where they were caught.
auntnance123
Then the question might be are they wild or captive because environment plays such a big role in their growth rate.
LisaPowers
They have not reached sexual maturity yet but they are old enough to sex by their shell patterns. They still have some growing to do!
ceherzog
Okay, now I'm confused..Wiki says it's one of the largest fresh water turtles in NA...yet the turtles in your pics are smaller than the person's hand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiny_softshell_turtle
ceherzog
Oh wow...a pretty small turtle...I'll look it up
LisaPowers
ceherzog, they are sub-adult. They had not quite reached reproductive age.
textless
Great photos... I love their faces!
ceherzog
I guess they're young 'uns? Beautiful! I always thought that in my next life I would become an entomologist...now I'm wondering...herpetology seems very cool!
kxy
nice spotted

Spotted for Missions

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Wildlife of the South East, USA
Mission
Turtles of the Southeast U.S.
Photographed
PublishedOctober 6, 2011

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