Yellow mud turtle

Yellow mud turtle
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Kinosternidae
Genus:	Kinosternon
Species:	K. flavescens
Binomial name
Kinosternon flavescens (Agassiz, 1857)
Synonyms[1]
Cinosternon flavescens Agassiz, 1857 Platythyra flavescens Agassiz, 1857 Cinosternum flavescens Agassiz, 1857 Kinosternum flavescens Cope, 1892 Kinosternon flavescens Stone, 1903 Kinosternon flavescens flavescens Hartweg, 1938 Kinosternon flavescens spooneri Smith, 1951 Platythyra flavenscens Raun & Gehlbach, 1972 (ex errore) Kinosternon spooneri Collins, 1991

The yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens) is a species of mud turtle in the Kinosternidae family that can be found in the Central United States and Mexico.

Distribution

• Northeastern Mexico: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.
• Midwestern and Southwestern United States: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Its current presence is uncertain in Veracruz (Mexico) and Arkansas (United States).

Description

The yellow mud turtle is a small, olive-colored turtle. Its name comes from the yellow colored areas on its throat, head and on the sides on its neck. The bottom shell is yellow to brown with two hinges, allowing the turtle to close each end separately. The male's tail has a blunt spine on the end, but the female's tail does not.

Lifespan

The yellow mud turtle has a lifespan of 15 years.

Diet

Yellow mud turtles are omnivorous. Their diet includes worms, crayfish, frogs, snails, fish, fairy shrimp, slugs, leeches, tadpoles, and other aquatic insects and invertebrates. They also eat vegetation and dead and decaying matter.

Yellow mud turtles forage on land and water for food. In early spring their main diet is fairy shrimp they find in the shallows of their ponds. While they are burrowing, they will eat earthworms or grubs they encounter. Some studies show these turtles will eat earthworms that pass in front of them while hibernating. They also consume fish and other aquatic organisms.

Reproduction

Most female aquatic turtles excavate a nest in the soil near a water source, deposit their eggs and leave, but yellow mud turtles exhibit a pattern of parental care. They are the only turtle that has been observed that stays with the eggs for any period of time. The female lays a clutch of 1-9 eggs^[2] and stays with the eggs for a period of time of a few hours up to 38 days. It is believed that the female stays to keep the predators away from the eggs. It was also observed that the females would urinate on their nests in dry years. This is believed to aid in the hatch success rate of the eggs in dry years.

It is believed that in their natural habitat that spring rains induce the turtles to begin nesting. The eggs hatch in the fall and some hatchlings leave the nest and spend the winter in aquatic habitats, but most of the hatchlings burrow below the nest and wait until spring to emerge and then move to the water. This is believed to aid in survival rates of the hatchlings, because some water bodies freeze solid during the winter. Another benefit of waiting to emerge in the spring is that hatchlings enter an environment of increasing resources, such as heat, light, and food.

References

1. Fritz Uwe; Peter Havaš (2007). "Checklist of Chelonians of the World". Vertebrate Zoology. 57 (2): 252. ISSN 1864-5755. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-17. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
2. O'Shea, Mark; Tim Halliday (2010). Reptiles and amphibians. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-4053-5793-7.

• Agassiz, 1857 : Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, vol. 1, p. 1-452.

External links

Data related to Kinosternon flavescens at Wikispecies