Thursday, April 23, 2009

Florida Softshelled Turtle (Apalone ferox)

Description
The Florida softshell is the largest of the New World softshell turtles (which are all believed to have originated in the Old World) and has the most Old World characteristics such as: relatively large size, tolerance for brackish water, and longitudinally wrinkled carapace. The young Florida softshell is olive-yellowish in color with large gray spots, yellow and orange markings on the head, and a yellowish border around the carapace. These juvenile markings are mostly lost with age. Adults are brown-gray sometimes showing traces of the juvenile markings. The plastron of the juveniles is a slate-gray.(read more)




Shark Valley, Everglades National Park

2 comments:

Javier said...

Impresionante bicho Juanka, parece enorme, me a llamado la atención su alargada nariz, buen documento, un abrazo.

Javier 16 said...

Menos mal que ha sido lista y se ha dado la vuelta hacia la vegetación.
Allí las tortugas son de buen tamaño. Me imagino que será de algún pantano, pues parece acuática.
Saludos.