Two-Headed Thelmaandlouise Turtle and Mature Wild Texas River Cooters

Summary: How would the two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle have looked and where would she have lived with wild Texas river cooters?

Thelmaandlouise, a two-headed Texas river cooter (Pseudemys texana), favor fresh duckweed (Arum spp.) and romaine lettuce at their birthplace, the San Antonio Zoo: Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook Oct. 4, 2013

Acquaintance with the two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle asks for answers to questions about habitat aspects and physical appearances had the 13-month-old's life cycles advanced past July 29, 2014, into adulthood.

The two-headed Texas river cooter bore a leftward head called Louise and a rightward head named Thelma because of her embryo not breaking into two bodies. The four-legged, short-clawed, short-tailed captive of Richard Friedrich Aquarium, San Antonio Zoo, Brackenridge Park, San Antonio, Texas, conducted basking, feeding and swimming within an indoor tank. Testudine experts and turtle enthusiasts deliver 1- to 2-foot (0.31- to 0.61-meter-) deep filtered aquarium and shaded pond waters at 75 degrees Fahrenheit (23.88 degrees Celsius).

Wild counterparts, like the two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle, expect basking, body-length sites at 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.44 degrees Celsius) to dry rot-prone, wettened shells.

Greek words, pseudes ("false") and emys ("turtle"), and taxonomic Latin, texana ("of Texas"), furnish the Emydidae marsh turtle, pond turtle and terrapin family member's scientific name.

Biogeography and Georg Hermann Carl Ludwig Baur (Jan. 4, 1859-June 25, 1898) in 1893 give two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle common nomenclature and scientific classification. Total populations of 10,000 to 100,000 Texas river cooters have 7.722.04- to 77,220.43-square-mile (20,000- to 200,000-square-kilometer) habitats in Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe and San Antonio river drainages. They inhabit clean, cobble- and gravel-bottomed, freshwater, shallow, somewhat shaded canals, creeks, lakes, marshes, ponds and rivers with rooted aquatic plants and impoundments and irrigation ditches.

Basker-plinkers, collectors, roadkills and severe habitat fragmentation, loss and pollution jeopardize wild Texas river cooters whose populations the International Union for Conservation of Nature judges sustainable.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle and wild Texas river cooters know May through July breeding seasons that kindle two to four clutches per year.

Sexually mature six- to seven-year-old mothers-to-be with 8.78- to 12.99-inch- (22.3- to 33-centimeter-) long carapaces (upper-shells) leave 4- to 22-egg clutches for 80- to 150-day incubations. Hatchlings move from ground-level, shallow nests near water in broadleaf forests, mixed forests, grasslands, savannahs and shrublands and transitional forests and grasslands in Texas's coastal plain. Hatchlings and juveniles need omnivorous ("everything-eating") diets of crayfish, earthworms, insects, snails and tadpoles whereas adulthood necessitates herbivorous ("plant-eating") regimes of eelgrass (Vallisneria) and Elodea species.

Male Texas river cooters observe sexual maturity as two-year-olds with 3.54-inch- (9-centimeter-) long upper-shells and maximum physical maturity with 7- to 13-inch (17.78- to 33.02-centimeter) upper-shells.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle and wild Texas river cooters possess dark-dabbed, flat, green, oval, pale-rimmed, scuted (scaled), yellow-marked upper-shells with flared, serrate-edged posteriors.

Long claws, limbs and tails and pinkish and reddish tinges qualify as respective hallmarks of mature males and of mature occasional predators of crustaceans and invertebrates. Webbed feet and toothlike cusps on both sides of the upper jaws' notched middle respectively result in fast diving and swimming and in optimal bite-and-shred feeding. Home territories that supply basking logs and rocks, breeding, foraging, overwintering and sheltering sites, burrowing and nesting grounds and moderate-flow, shallow freshwaters sustain Texas river cooters.

Captives such as the two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle and wild Texas river cooters team up as keystone species that transmit verification of environmental well-being.

Thelmaandlouise passed away June 29, 2014; the two-headed Texas river cooter made a splash locally and globally: Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook July 29, 2014

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Thelmaandlouise, a two-headed Texas river cooter, enjoy fresh duckweed (Arum spp.) and romaine lettuce in their birthplace, the San Antonio Zoo: Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook Oct. 4, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/170679326469183/

Thelmaandlouise passed away June 29, 2014; the two-headed Texas river cooter made a splash locally and globally: Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook July 29, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/273751446161970/

For further information:

Baur, G. (George). 1893. "Notes on the Classification and Taxonomy of the Testudinata. Read . . . May 5, 1893: Pseudemys texana, sp. nov." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. XXXI (January-December 1893): 223-224. Philadelphia PA: Printed for the Society by MacCalla & Company, 1893.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7219903
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofamep31amer#page/223/mode/1up

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/08/two-headed-texas-river-cooter.html

San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo. 17 June 2014. "Not only will we be celebrating the Spurs' championship win tomorrow...we'll be celebrating a VERY special birthday! . . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.417991171538.212061.406923321538/10152444970256539/

San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo. 26 June 2013. "Thelma and Louise were part of a quartet of Texas cooters hatched at the Zoo on June 18, 2013." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.10151689796811539.1073741831.406923321538/10151689797151539/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 29 July 2014. "The San Antonio Zoo is saddened over the loss of Thelma and Louise." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/273751446161970/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 30 July 2013. "Thanks to Paul Garcia for this photo!" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/152697078267408/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 4 October 2013. "Thanks to Paul Garcia for this new picture of Thelma & Louise. Looks like they are in 'stealth mode' in a fresh batch of duckweed. Look out crickets!" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/170679326469183/

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Available @ http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-News/2013/06/27/Two-Headed-Turtle-Born-At-San-Antonio-Zoo/

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Available @ http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Turtles-Tortoises/Information-News/Two-Headed-Turtle-Thelma-and-Louise-Dies/

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