Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Location found.........Southern Alachua County, FL

Length..................8inch shell length

Width...................6 1/2inch shell length

The shell struck me as very unusual...........all black, including the head and all 4 legs. The underbelly is an off yellow.

What kind of map turtle can this possibly be and is she not out her zone????? Any information you can provide I'll be grateful

Thanks
Dave

Hey Dave,

What you have is not a Map turtle. I can see what would make you think that...the jagged rear shell and well developed medial keel. Plus, the turtle is completely melanistic outside of the plastron, which confuses identification. Overall, structurally, this appears to be a slider (Trachemys scripta ssp.). Yellowbelly sliders range very close to Ocala, so it is a possibility. It is also possible that it is an introduced Red-eared slider. They are everywhere! In fact, it could be an intergrade of Yellowbelly/Red-ear. These two subspecies are nearly identical, and are typically only differentiated by color (impossible with this turtle). Both almost always become very dark with age, especially males.

Another possibility is that it is a Florida Redbelly(Pseudemys nelsoni). They can also become darkened with age. However, structurally, the head appears too large in relation to the shell. Also, they don't usually get that well developed keel. There are some head characterisitcs that could determine whether it is a Trachemys or Pseudemys. Trachemys typically have a "rounded" lower jaw, while Pseudemys have a "flattened" lower jaw. This is clear when looking straight at the turtles head, face to face.

Hope this helps.

You aren't the only one who had posts removed. A week's worth of Box turtle posts were temporarily removed, as well as some other scattered posts. Apparently, it was a temporary gliche.

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

Going melanistic in sliders is much like male humans going gray - it can happen at any age, but one this dark is likely a very old turtle. I've seen a pet male slider one that was completely dark at 15 years old. I think the rugosa (the wavy portions of the shell) is more a sign of old age than the coloration.

Katrina
-----
1.2 Eastern Muds - Fred, Ethel, Edith
0.1 Iguana - Tiffel
0.1 Bearded Dragon - Foster
Foster turtles: More than I'd like the husband to know about.

Although I am not sure what it is I am positive that this turtle is not a slider of any sort, but a map turtle. The head shape is quite dissimilar from that of a slider, the central scutes are strongly keeled, the rear marginal and supracaudal scutes are jagged like those of a map turtle. Besides the fact that it is black this turtle looks nothing like a melanistic slider.