Okay so I bought this turtle from a local pet store a while back. Most of the time, they are really good with knowing their species and breeds in all types of animals and are really knowledgeable in general, but I suspect they may have got it wrong this time...

They sold me this little turtle as a Razorback Musk turtle. I've been perfectly content calling it that... until now. I was trying to look up pictures today of adult Razorbacks and realized that my little Nessie here really doesn't look much like a Razorback all... He's not very photogenic, or even people-genic, so it's difficult to get a good shot but here, here's the best one I could get. He currently lives back home with my parents while I'm up at school, so I can't get any better shots.




He's green only because he's got a bit of algae on him - he's actually really brown and the little spikes on his back used to be tipped in black. I can't tell if they still are or not. As you can see, he's striped with yellow - not spotted. And his eyes are yellow-ish too, despite looking kind of white in that picture. His back does come to quite a tall point, and there are several serrated spikes on his back, not just one. His shell is jagged around the edges, and his forelegs are kind of jagged as well. In the first picture, his head is kind of pulled in to his shell - he doesn't like cameras, as I said. Nostrils are close together on the very front of his face, and he eats fish and shrimp. By "he", I mean "it". I'm not really sure what he is in the sense of sex, I've always just called him a he. The plates of his shell don't overlap at all. Last time I was home, he was about the size of a small, closed fist. He shares a home with a Cooter Turtle.

Any ideas anyone?

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