The Alligator Snapping Turtle

Macrochelys temminckii, The Alligator Snapping Turtle, is a very beautiful and fearsome member of the family Chelydridae. It is characterized by its large size, sharp beak with a worm-like structure in the mouth, a very thick carapace with raised osteoderms, and rough skin with sharp claws on its feet.  It appears green or brown overall which helps camouflage it so it cannot be seen by its prey.  

The Alligator Snapping Turtle occurs from Louisiana north in Mississippi valley to Illinois and from Oklahoma and Texas east to northern Florida.  They typically live anywhere from 20 to 75 years in the wild, and can weigh up to 250 lbs.  Their diet consists almost exclusively of meaty foods either dead or alive, and can consists mainly of fish, crustaceans, small to medium sized mammals, and some amphibians and reptiles including other turtles.  

Macrochelys temminckii reaches maturity around 10 to 12 years of age, and mating occurs in the spring.  Females go on land and build a nest where it lays a clutch of anywhere from 10 to 50 eggs.  Like some other reptiles and crocodilians, Alligator Snapping Turtles' sex is determined by the temperature of the environment while the eggs are incubating.  Higher temperatures lead to a higher ratio of females being born, while lower temperatures lead to a higher ratio of males.

The Alligator Snapping Turtle spends most of the day laying at the bottom of a body of water with its mouth open waiting to catch unsuspecting creatures, and usually only forage for food at night.  They use a curious appendage in their mouth that mimics a worm to attract live prey to their mouth which promptly shuts on the unlucky suspect.  There are no real natural predators to the Alligator Snapping Turtle except for humans who usually kill them for their meat. 

The Alligator Snapping Turtle can be distinguished from the Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) by the 3 rows of large osteoderms on its shell, as well as its extra large head relative to its body.  

                             Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)           

The Common Snapping Turtle also has a much larger natural range extending from southern Texas and Florida north to southern Canada, and all along the eastern U.S. west to eastern Colorado and New Mexico.

The Alligator Snapping Turtle has appeal in the pet trade due to its interesting feeding behavior and relatively easy care requirements, the biggest restriction being their large adult size.  They are also popular mainstays in public zoos for the same reasons.  The Alligator Snapping Turtle has also been featured in popular media, namely the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, where a character named Tokka is an alligator snapping turtle that is exposed to the same ooze that gave the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles their powers and abilities. 

                             Pictured: Tokka from TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_snapping_turtle#cite_note-6

Conant, Roger, and Joseph T. Collins. Field Guide To Reptiles And Amphibians. 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998. Print.