North American Stripe-Necked, Loggerhead Musk Turtle Habitats Abound

Summary: North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats abound around pond, river, run, spring, stream, swamp and wetland burrows, crevices and logs.

loggerhead musk turtle (Sternotherus minor minor): theTurtleRoom.com @theTurtleRoom, via Facebook Dec. 30, 2013

North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats abound around Alabama’s and Florida’s Choctawhatchee and Perdido, Florida’s Apalachicola, Georgia’s Altamaha and Ogeechee pond, river, run, spring, stream, swamp, wetland burrows, crevices and logs.

Loggerhead musk turtles bear their species common name because of big heads and bracing emissions and the subspecies common names loggerhead musk and stripe-necked musk turtles. They conserve Sternotherus minor minor and Sternotherus minor peltifer (from Greek στέρνον, “breastbone” and θηρίον, “beast” and Latin minor, “lesser” and peltifer, “shield-bearing”) subspecies scientific names. Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28, 1807-Dec. 14, 1873) scientifically described in 1857 Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana specimens of what developed taxonomically into Sternotherus minor species.

Donald Ward Tinkle (Dec. 3, 1930-Feb. 21, 1980) and Robert Gravem Webb (Feb. 10, 1927-Sep. 18, 2018) scientifically elucidated in 1955 first-named, loggerhead musk turtle subspecies.

Bryan Pettigrew Glass (Aug. 21, 1919-Aug. 27, 2010) and Hobart Muir Smith (Sep. 26, 1912-March 4, 2013) scientifically figured in 1947 second-named stripe-necked musk turtle subspecies.

The Testudines (from Latin testūdō, "turtle" and Greek -ηνός via Latin –īnus, “of”) true-turtle order member gets March-April, May-June-July and October-November-December-January-February-March-April-May-June breeding, egg-incubating and hatchling-emergence months. The Kinosternidae (from Greek κῑνέω, “I move” and στέρνον, “chest” and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) family members’ two-paired musk glands hurtle horrible-colored, scented, textured secretions. It is possible for the musk glands to be activated and for the invasive secretions to be released by embryos within shells, hatchlings, juveniles and adults.

Water pollution, soil-runoff siltation, pet-trade collection, built environments and aggressive alligators, crows, opossums, raccoons, skunks, snakes, snapping turtles jeopardize North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats.

Annual mating, nesting and parenting months keep 5- to 8-, 8-plus-year-old stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtle females in 5-foot- (1.52-meter-) deep sand-piled nurseries along spring runs.

Adult female mates of 3- to 6-, 6-plus-year-old males’ lay 1 to 4 clutches of 2 to 3 blue-pink-white, brittle, elliptical, 1-1/8-inch (29-millimeter), porcelain-like, translucent eggs. Late-season mating below the water and nesting on sand sometimes means overwintered opaque white-matured eggs or overwintering hatchlings whose emergences manifest within 91 to 119 days. Beetles, millipedes and true bugs versus aquatic plants, beetles, clams, crayfish, mayflies, odonates, snails and stoneflies respectively nourish juvenile versus mature stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtles.

North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, from northernmost minus 10 to southernmost 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.3 to minus 1.1 degrees Celsius).

Stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtles populate Kentucky and Virginia and North Carolina and Tennessee borders, eastern Mississippi, western South Carolina and the upper half of Florida.

Brown-orange, dark-spotted or dark-streaked, 3- to 5.25-inch- (7.5- to 13.5-centimeter-) long carapaces (upper-shells, from Spanish carapacho, “tortoise shell”) quarter dark-bordered seams and overlapping, plated, vertical scutes. Long-, spiny-tailed male and tiny-tailed female adults reveal barbeled (from Latin barba, “beard”) chins and plated plastrons (lower-shells, from Greek ἐν-, “on” and πλασσειν, “to plaster”). Both subspecies support oval, smooth upper-shells even as stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtles respectively sustain one keel and striped necks and three ridges and dark-spotted heads.

North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats track barbeled chins; dark-marked heads or necks; dark-marked, one-keeled or three-ridged, spiny- or tiny-tailed upper-shells; one-hinged, pink-yellow, plated lower-shells.

stripe-necked musk turtle (Sternotherus minor peltifer): Jen Y. Lamb, PhD @jenylamb, via Twitter April 4, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

loggerhead musk turtle (Sternotherus minor minor): theTurtleRoom.com @theTurtleRoom, via Facebook Dec. 30, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=815754031785079

stripe-necked musk turtle (Sternotherus minor peltifer): Jen Y. Lamb, PhD @jenylamb, via Twitter April 4, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/jenylamb/status/584580126639169536

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