Spiny Softshell Turtle (Trionyx spiniferus)

Adult Size: Males 5" to 9¼"; females 6½" to 18"

Description: The shell is covered with a soft leathery skin, not horny scutes. The carapace is olive to tan, with black bordered "eye-spots" or dak blotches and dark line around the shell's rim and spiny tubercles on the leading edge and 2 dark bordered light stripes on each side of the head. The nostrils have a lateral ridge extending from the nasal septum.

Habitat: Likes small marshy creeks and farm ponds as well as large, fast flowing river and lakes.

Breeding: nests in May to August. Digs a flask shaped cavity in the bank of sand ir gravel exposed to full sunlight and lays 4 to 32 spherical eggs that are 1 1/8" in diameter. Females may nest more than once a season. Hatchlings emerge in late August to October or the following spring.

Range:Throughout the central United States sa far west as the Continental Divide. Separate populations in Montana, southern Quebec, Delaware, and the Gila-Colorado River system of New Mexico and Utah.

Diet: Carnivorous.

Behavior: Difficult to approach and fast moving on land and in the water. It is fond of basking on banks, logs, and floating debris.

Video

Conservation Status:

Additonal Notes: Captive longevity exceeds 25 years.

Subspecies: Six in our range.

Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtle (T.s. spiniferus) - a large carapace with black bordered eye spots and one dark rim line. Found in western New York to Wisconsin, south to the Tennessee River, with separate population in Lake Champlain and the lower part of the Ottawa River in Canada. Introduced into southern New Jersey. Photo...

Western Spiny Softshell Turtle (T.s. hartwegi) - the carapace has small dots, eye spots, and one dark rim line. Found in Missesota to Arkansas, west to southeastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, and northeastern New Mexico, with separate population in the Missouri River drainage system in Montana. Photo...

Gulf Coast Spiny Softshell Turtle (T.s. asper) - 2 or more dark lines around the rear rim of teh carapace and the head stripes are fused on the side of the head. Found in south-central North Carolina to the Florida panhandle, west to Mississipppi and eastern Louisiana. Photo...

Pallid Spiny Softshell Turtle (T.s. pallidus) - pale with white tubercles on the rear half of the carapace. Found in western Louisiana, southern Oklahoma, and most of northern and eastern Texas. Photo...

Guadalupe Spiny Softshell Turtle (T.s. guadalupensis) - small white tubercles surrounded by narrow black rings on most parts of the carapace. Found in south-central Texas in Nueces and Guadalupe-San Antonio drainage systems. Photo...

Texas Spiny Softshell Turtle (T.s. emoryi) - white tuberlces on the back third of the carapace, with the pale marginal rim becoming conspicuously widened along the rear edge. Found in the Rio Grande drainage in Texas and New Mexico, and the Gila-Colorado River system in Arizona, New Mexico and extreme southwestern Utah, Characteristics intergrade where ranges of subspecies overlap. Photo...