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Common musk turtle

Sternotherus odoratus

Habitat:

Waterways and riverbanks, usually basking on a log or rock

1 Species ID Suggestions

NeilDazet
NeilDazet 11 years ago
Common Musk Turtle
Sternotherus odoratus http://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/steodo.htm


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9 Comments

Aaron_G
Aaron_G 11 years ago

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...

Adam S.
Adam S. 11 years ago

@AaronG - just uploaded a photo of the underside :)

Adam S.
Adam S. 11 years ago

Well guess I've seen a musk now :) Thanks for the corrections to AaronG and NeilD. Making the changes now.

NeilDazet
NeilDazet 11 years ago

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. :)

KarenL
KarenL 11 years ago

:-)
You might like to also add this to the Turtles of the SE US mission http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1058...

Adam S.
Adam S. 11 years ago

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.

Adam S.
Adam S. 11 years ago

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.

KarenL
KarenL 11 years ago

Great portrait - he's smiling for you!

Aaron_G
Aaron_G 11 years ago

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? :-)

Adam S.
Spotted by
Adam S.

South Carolina, USA

Spotted on Sep 6, 2009
Submitted on Jul 31, 2012

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