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[12] [7] This color pattern is known as countershading and is a form of camouflage to conceal turtles from potential predators. [13] It is the largest species of softshell turtle found in Florida and all of North America, ranging from 15 to 76 cm (5.9 to 29.9 in) in straight-line carapace length. [12]
It lived during the Puercan (66 to 63.3 million years ago) faunal stage, only shortly after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. [ 3 ] [ 1 ] It is one of a number of fossil softshell turtle species that is tentatively classified to the former wastebasket taxon genus Trionyx .
Apalone is a genus of turtles in the family Trionychidae.The three species of Apalone are native to freshwater habitats in North America; they are the only living softshell turtles from the Americas (other American softshell turtles are only known from fossil remains).
Box turtles in North America are increasingly becoming a conservation concern because of habitat loss and because they are being harvested for the pet trade. [2] The destruction of prairies due to land renovations has led to the decline of the desert box turtles ( Terrapene ornata luteola ) across much of their geographical range.
A. mutica is native to the United States, where it is distributed throughout the central and south-central states. Its natural geographic range extends from western Pennsylvania in the east to New Mexico in the west, as far north as the Dakotas, and south to the westernmost Florida Panhandle, where it is eventually replaced by the Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox).
A 3-year study in Texas indicated that over 7,000 box turtles were taken from the wild for commercial trade. A similar study in Louisiana found that in a 41-month period, nearly 30,000 box turtles were taken from the wild for resale, many for export to Europe. Once captured, turtles are often kept in poor conditions where up to half of them die.
Turtles, like other reptiles, breathe air, not water. They have lungs, not gills like fish, and so even if they live mostly in the water, they need to come up to the surface to breathe now and again.
The turtles, which according to airport authorities were believed to have entered the runway in order to nest, were removed and released back into the wild. [75] A similar incident happened on June 29, 2011, when over 150 turtles crossed runway 4, closing the runway and disrupting air traffic. Those terrapins were also relocated safely. [76]