Terrapin Trip

Our class went on a field trip to the Grice Marine Lab in Charleston Harbor to find malaclemys terrapin. The concentric grooves & ridges on the scutes of the carapace and the spotted heads & legs are characteristic. They are ususally found in coastal marshes, rarely straying from salt or brackish water. We only caught this one, but we can tell it is a male because of its small size in relation to a female and (to distinguish it from a young female) its cloaca on the tail is past the carapace.

Lauren Stewart