Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I discovered this little (young?)turtle in our yard. We have many snappers and box turtles around, but, he looks different from either (at least to me). We live in the Ozark Mtns in Southwestern Missouri. The area around us is fairly rocky and wooded; with a few farms ponds and creeks in the vicinity.
This little guy is about 1 3/4 inches long with no striking colors that I've found. His front legs have five toes each. The back appear to only have fours toes, and even the fourth toe is almost nonexistant.
Any ideas who this might be??
Thanks for your time and effort,
Monnie
Clever, MO

Looks Like A Eastern Box Turtle to me but if you found it in the west I am not sure.Just a thought though.

It's a hatchling box turtle (Terrapene carolina).

You know, I found this one in the midle of the highway!! Are there a lot of box turtles normally wandering around in Missouri!?!?

actually box turtle numbers are going down at a pretty rapid pace, most die from being run over, others die from being picked up by someone and given to a petstore where they're placed in a 10G aquarium until they either die or someone buys them, most people who buy them just want them for novelty.. then once this "new thing" becomes an "old thing" they're forgotten about and left to die a horrible death..
but there are alot of keepers of box turtles that have devoted a whole backyard to a group of turtles, alot of the keepers breed to help ease the strain on wild populations.
most people will tell you, when they were kids there used to be box turtles everywhere, but now they dont see them that much.