Common Musk Turtle, hatchling

That looks just like my little turtle

Mandy - I also have a hatchling common musk turtle spotting on Project Noah (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/112...). Mine was hatched in a herpetology lab, so it's in the Captive Animals mission. That is so cool that you found a hatchling in the wild! Hatchling musk turtles are the smallest of all turtles in the SE United States. Thanks for adding this one to my Turtles of the Southeast U.S. mission!

Great spotting Mandy! Common Musk turtles are under-appreciated in the turtle world. I love them. They were my main study animal when I was in grad school studying Biology. They are easy to spot in shallow waters, they look like little footballs or rocks moving about amongst the aquatic vegetation. :)

You're quite welcome. I know I say this ALL the time, but the underside is often important with many reptiles. Great job all around, Mandy!

Thanks, both of you, for the ID help! I was stumped. I don't know much about turtles yet, since I rarely find them.

looks like a Barbour’s map turtle hatchling. Graptemys barbouri. here's a couple of links so you can confirm one way or the other. :-)

http://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-...

http://www.tnaqua.org/OurAnimals/Reptile...

I feel pretty confident with this ID suggestion, but only because you provided PERFECT images to back it up. Great job getting all angles, especially the plastron!