Yellow Mud Turtle

Kinosternon flavescens

DIET           HABITAT           ECONOMIC VALUE           STATUS           SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS           REPRODUCTION      REFERENCES          HISTORICAL DISTRIBUTION

Written by Matt Baack

December 2000

TAXONOMY

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata  

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Testudines

Family: Trionychoidea  

Genus: Kinosternon

Species: flavescens

DESCRIPTION

     The yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens) is a long-lived turtle with a lifespan of about 15 years. The turtle's top shell is olive colored and grows from 1.58 to 2.51 centimeters at maturity. The bottom shell is yellow to brown and has two hinges, allowing the turtle to close each end separately. Its name is derived from the yellow areas on the throat, head and neck. The male has a blunt spine on the end of the tail, while the female does not (Texas Parks and Wildlife). The yellow mud turtle is diurnal and inhabits ponds, lakes and slow moving waterways(John B. Iverson). The yellow mud turtle is an aquatic animal, but often leaves the water to forage and sometimes to migrate to another body of water, if the body of water that it is living in dries up. When disturbed, both sexes are capable of emitting a strong odor from musk glands that are located on each side of their body. Yellow mud turtles in Iowa have the shortest feeding and activity period of any North American aquatic turtle at 70 to76 days (Christiansen and Bickham, 1989).