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Sternotherus odoratus
Waterways and riverbanks, usually basking on a log or rock
Nice shot! Thank you. Scroll to the bottom of this page and you can see why I wanted to view the plastron:
http://www.empireoftheturtle.com/Florida...
Well guess I've seen a musk now :) Thanks for the corrections to AaronG and NeilD. Making the changes now.
Hey Adam! Nice turtle spotting - it is a common musk turtle, sternotherus odoratus. I did my graduate research at MO State on these guys. Terrific little turtles. :)
:-)
You might like to also add this to the Turtles of the SE US mission http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1058...
lol Karen... I thought it was trying to eat me but its mouth was so small it couldn't even get it wide enough to fit around my pinky finger.
The second photo shows a bit of the underside but not too clearly. I've got some photos of the adults and it was from them we did the main identification. Cooters are like the pigeons of the river here... just about everywhere. I've yet to see a musk turtle, or at least one I could definitely identify as a musk. The rivers/creeks here are mostly cooters and loggerheads.
Hi, Adam. This looks a lot like a musk turtle to me. Do you happen to have a photo of the bottom of the shell? :-)