Reptiles of Florida
Reptiles
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Ectothermic vertebrates
Very successful
Have scales and toenails
Amniotes (lay eggs with yolk on
land)
• Made up of 4 orders:
– Crocodylia (alligators & crocodiles)
– Squamata (amphisbaenids & lizards,
including snakes)
– Testudines (turtles)
– Sphenodontida (tutuaras)
Order Testudines
• 1st appeared about 220 million years ago
• Have modified ribcage that forms shell and
encloses pelvic and pectoral girdles
• Life histories typically characterized by slow
growth, low fecundity, late maturity & long life
Family Chelydridae
• Large freshwater turtles
• Rarely leave water except to lay eggs
• Long neck, long tail, & small plastron
Chelydra
serpentina
Photo By: D. Stevenson
• Can attain large size
• Large head, long neck
and small plastron
• Common throughout
most of eastern US
• Common Snapping Turtle
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Macrochelys temminckii
• HUGE! (record 113.9kg)
• Large head with strongly
hooked beak
• Carapace w/3 large keels
• Worm-like pink “lure” on
tongue used to catch fish
Photos By: E. Condon
•Alligator Snapping Turtle
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Family Emydidae
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Pond and box turtles
Largest turtle family
Large plastron (may be hinged)
Most species found in the temperate zone
Malaclemys terrapin
•Only brackish water turtle
•Large ranges
•Once hunted almost to
extinction, protected in
many states
•Bycatch in crab traps
•Diamondback Terrapin
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Pseudemys concinna
• 2nd costal scute with
light “C”
• Not as high-domed
as other Psuedemys
• River Cooter
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Pseudemys floridana
• Large, high-domed shell
• May have light
“hairpins” on head
• Florida Cooter
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Pseudemys nelsoni
• Large, high-domed shell
w/ red streaks
• Plastron usually light
orange or yellow
• Notch in upper jaw with
strong cusps
• May lay eggs in alligator
nests
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Florida Redbelly Turtle
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Terrapene carolina
Photo By: W. Tracy
• Almost entirely terrestrial
• Plastral hinge allows for
complete closure of shell
• Brilliant coloration
extremely variable
(especially where
subspecies overlap)
• Eastern Box Turtle
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Trachemys scripta scripta
• Large yellow blotch
behind eye
• Rear marginals
serrate
• Vertically striped
“pants”
Photo By: G. Miller
• Yellowbelly Slider
Trachemys scripta elegans
• Exotic in FL
• “Nickle turtle” sold in Five&-Dime stores
• Introduced to every
continent except Antarctica
• Broad reddish stripe behind
eye
• may fade, along with green
carapace, in adults
• Red-Eared Slider
Family Kinosternidae
• Mud and musk turtles – have musk glands
that can secrete malodorous musk
• Strongly aquatic
• Bottom walkers
• Mostly nocturnal
• Hinged plastron
• Two genera:
Kinosternon (mud)
Sternotherus (musk)
• Triangular pectoral scute
• Rectangular pectoral scute
• Double hinged plastron
• Single hinged plastron
Kinosternon baurii
• Three light stripes
on carapace
• Triangular
pectoral scute,
two hinges
• Head with two
light side stripes
• Striped Mud Turtle
Photo By: Suzanne Collins
Kinosternon subrubrum
• Smooth brownblack carapace
• Triangular pectoral
scute, two hinges
• Head markings tend
to be yellow, but are
extremely variable
Photo By: J. Jensen
• Eastern Mud Turtle
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Sternotherus minor
• Pale gray head with
profusion of dark flecks
• Adults-head large
compared to body
w/mollusk-crushing jaws
• Rectangular pectoral
scute, one hinge
Photo By: S. Collins
• Loggerhead Musk Turtle
Sternotherus odoratus
Photo By: J. Jensen
• Very common
• Two yellow stripes on head
• Rectangular pectoral
scutes, single hinge
• Barbels on throat and chin
• Will climb slanted
trees/logs to bask
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Photo By: T. Blunden
Common Musk Turtle or Stinkpot
Family Testudinidae
• Only 4 species in US, but representatives on
every habitable continent except Australia
• Mostly herbivorous
• “Elephant-like” hind feet
Photo By: E. Condon
Gopherus polyphemus
• Keystone species!
• Threatened in FL and
US
• Digs burrows up to 2m
deep and 15m long
• Burrows used by more
than 300 other species
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Gopher Tortoise
Family Trionychidae
• Softshell turtles
• Powerful aquatic turtles with leathery
shells (skeletal structure reduced)
• Long necks with tube-like nostrils allow
for complete submersion
Apalone ferox
• Large and relatively
common
• Overall brown/dark
coloration
• Bumps on front of shell
flattened
• Usually associated with
lakes/ponds
• Florida Softshell
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Family Cheloniidae
• Marine turtles with limbs modified into
flippers (all 6 spp. except leatherback)
• Slow growth, delayed maturation, low
fecundity
• Leave water only to lay eggs
• 2 populations of green turtles bask
• All species internationally protected
• In U.S. loggerhead Threatened and all
other spp. listed as Endangered
Chelonia mydas
• Highly variable
• Single pair of prefrontal
scales on head
• 4 costal/lateral scutes
• 1st lateral scute does
not touch nuchal scute
• Only herbivorous sea
turtle
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Caretta caretta
• Huge heads
• Juveniles lighter, adults
dark reddish brown
• 5 lateral/coastal scutes
• 1st costal touches nuchal
• 2 pairs prefrontal scales
• Typically covered in
barnacles
• Loggerhead (Sea Turtle)
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Eretmochelys imbricata
• “Tortoise-shell”
• Overlapping
scutes
• Sharp,
pronounced beak
• 1st lateral scute
does not touch
nuchal scute
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Lepidochelys kempii
• Almost circular
carapace, olive
green coloration
• 5 lateral scutes, 1st
touches nuchal
• Critically
endangered, only
one major nesting
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rookery
Family Dermochelyidae
• Includes only the critically endangered
leatherback turtle
• Living dinosaurs
• Perhaps deepest diving animal
• Most migratory animal in world
• Northernmost range of any reptile
• Endothermic! (warm-blooded)
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Dermochelys coriacea
• Largest of all living
turtles (and reptiles)
• 7 longitudinal ridges
on carapaces
• Smooth leathery skin
• Entirely
pelagic/oceanic
• Largest front flippers,
no front claw
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