Spotted turtle
| Spotted turtle | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Family: | Emydidae |
| Subfamily: | Emydinae |
| Genus: | Clemmys |
| Species: | C. guttata |
| Binomial name | |
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Clemmys guttata (Schneider, 1792) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Genus synonymy
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The spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata), the only extant species of Clemmys, is a small, semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in) upon adulthood. Their broad, smooth, low dark-colored upper shell, or carapace, ranges in its exact colour from black to a bluish black with a number of yellow tiny round spots. The spotting patterning extends from the head, to the neck and out onto the limbs. Males and females can be distinguished by differences in plastron shape and eye and chin colouration.
Spotted turtles are aquatic omnivores that inhabit a variety of semi-aquatic or in other words, shallow, fresh-water areas such as flooded forests, marshes, wet meadows, bogs and woodland streams in southern Canada (Ontario) and the eastern US: the eastern Great Lakes and east of the Appalachian Mountains.
The spotted turtle is the only species in the genus Clemmys, which was first named in 1828 by Ferdinand August Maria Franz von Ritgen.Johann Gottlob Schneider originally described the species as Testudo guttatai in 1792; however, he is now the authority for the current binomial name, Clemmys guttata.
The spotted turtle is small and has a gray to black base color. Its upper shell (carapace) is smooth, does not have a central ridge running down the middle (called a "keel"), and grows to 3.5–12.5 cm (1.4–4.9 in) in length. It is also totally black and contains anywhere from zero to about one hundred yellow spots, which are a defining characteristic of this turtle. Although perhaps inconsequential, it has been found that the left side of the upper shell has more spots than the right. Spots can always be found on the head, neck, and limbs. The bottom shell (plastron) is yellow or orange-yellow and a black spot is present on each section (scute); however, with age, melanism of the plastron increases until the entire thing is black.
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Wikipedia