Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everybody! Its been ages since I posted here but I'll get to the point. I'm working on a research paper for my growth and metabolism course and am looking into scute abnormalities as a starting point. I saw here a long time ago something about the number of scutes turtles or tortoises (I'm not sure if this was meant for a specific species) being correlated to the incubation temperature.

Does anyone have any knowledge of this? Any photos of examples? Any idea if this abnormality has a specific term? Any idea if the abnormality has consequences in adult animals? Any info is greatly appreciated, again this is only a starting point.

Thanks!
Kerry Smith

Dear Kerry,
regarding scute irregularities, be sure to read what A.Highfield has to say about it. Correllation between scute irregularities and temps of incubation? Well, I don't know who would have data to prove that, but it is common knowledge among breeders that high end of normal temps (which we may do to try and produce femals in TSD species and being in a hurry...)often result in scute irregularities. We don't know for sure if it is temp "spikes" or overall temps, maybe both. I find the scute irregularities to be a good way to buy a female, as you know hatchlings only rarely can be sexed i.e. irregular scutes usually are females. The irregulatites vary in severity, ranging from a simple split in an otherwise normal scute to significant deformity.

Scute irregularities are commonly seen in wild populations also. I hope you will share what you learn from your research. Vic H.