I don't even know your name but thank you soooooo much!!! seriously I started to look at the different characteristics and I think it IS an old male red eared slider........I was browsing the web and the max length for a male red eared is around 8inches.......my guy is exactly 8 inches. Also I thought and did know that male sliders usually have much longer front toenails......and although I don't have the opposite sex to compare his with.......I do think it is a male!! Also under super close inspection I can make out a few faint old lines patterns around his neck and head region......if I can only get him to extend his neck out a little further and then photograph it I might even be able to unveil the "red patch" which would now be dark gray/black. I didn't even think about red ears being in that area because I was sooo far out ..I thought on a country road. But I know the pet trade probably has distributed and naturalized red ears all over florida. The only thing that looks a bit extreme is the pronounced jaggedness of the lower shell, which is probably just an 'unusual' extremity in this instance only. Do you have any idea at what age an old turtle would be to be this melanistic........I wonder at what age they start to get black?

Thanks again
Dave Nunlist

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