Red-eared Slider

Description:

As I watched, this turtle climbed out of the water to sun itself on the stump. The red-eared slider is perhaps the best known and most recognizable of turtles. It is a medium sized turtle with a dark green oval shell, marked with yellow in younger turtles, green legs with thin yellow stripes and a green head with a red stripe behind the eye.

Habitat:

Lake Lewisville

Notes:

A turtle's shell is actually made up of its ribs joined together and covered with a thin layer of skin. Each of the ribs is made of jigsaw-like sections called scutes, which grow at the edges. This allows the turtle to increase in size without outgrowing its shell.