Painted turtle

Description:

Eastern painted turtle. They are water turtles and can grow up to nine inches long (the male is smaller). One of the most common turtles in North America. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. They prefer living in freshwater that is quiet, shallow and has a thick layer of mud. Painted turtles are brightly marked. The turtle's top shell is dark and smooth. Its skin is olive to black with red, orange, or yellow stripes on its extremities. The subspecies can be distinguished by their shells: the eastern has straight-aligned top shell segments; the midland has a large gray mark on the bottom shell; the southern has a red line on the top shell; the western has a red pattern on the bottom shell. There ribs are fused to the shell and the turtle cannot expand its chest to breathe but must force air in and out of the lungs by alternately contracting the flank and shoulder muscles. The painted turtle is active only during the day when it basks for hours on logs or rocks. During winter, the turtle hibernates, usually in the mud at the bottom of water bodies. The turtles mate in spring and autumn.

Habitat:

These painted turtles were spotted in the canal while riding bikes on the C&O Canal in Cumberland, Maryland.