River Cooters: Circle-, Doughnut-Patterned, Horned Brown-Yellow Shell

Summary: North American river cooter habitats get c-, circle-, doughnut-marked dark uppers, 12-scuted, x-marked pale lowers, 12 scutes per side and webfeet.

Juvenile Suwannee River cooter (Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis) basks on perch in Crystal River, Florida; Sept. 11, 2014; photo by Ashley Ballou/FWC: Florida Fish and Wildlife (MyFWCmedia), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr

North American river cooter habitats assume distribution ranges from coastal Virginia southward through Florida, Texas and New Mexico and westward through Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois and Oklahoma and everywhere in-between.

River cooters bear their common name as eastern, Suwanee and Texas subspecies that bask with mixed species on lake, marshy, river, spring run and stream banks. They carry the species and the eastern, Suwanee and Texas subspecies names Pseudemys concinna (false-turtle well-arranged), Pseudemys concinna concinna, Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis and Pseudemys concinna texana. John Eatton Le Conte's (Feb. 22, 1784-Nov. 21, 1860) descriptions in 1830 and Archibald Fairly Carr, Jr.'s (June 16, 1909-May 21, 1987) in 1937 dominate taxonomies.

Texas, Suwanee and eastern river cooter life cycles expect brackish tidal marshes, lakes, rivers and streams with moderate currents and spring runs with rocks for basking.

March through May, April/May through July and August through September fill Texas, Suwanee and eastern river cooter lifestyles with breeding, egg incubation and hatchling emergence months.

Texas, Suwanee and eastern river cooters grab the day's rays on waterside groundcovers, rocks and soils like related Emydidae box, marsh and pond turtle family members. They head for shallow lake, marsh, river, spring and stream waters to hide under waterbed debris and rocks from hostile competitors, enemies, intruders, predators and rivals. Defensive involvements initiate inserting head, legs and tail back into horn-textured, scute-covered shells with 6 paired lower-shell scutes and, for each upper-shell side, 12 marginal scutes.

Agro-industrialists, breeders, collectors, polluters and predatory alligators, American crows, muskrats, opossums, raccoons, raptors, red foxes, river otters, snakes and weasels jeopardize North American river cooter habitats.

River cooters know elaborate courtships as emydid members of the Emydidae box, marsh and pond turtle family that keeps male foreclaws long for stroking female heads.

One to six May through July clutches each leave 12 to 25 1.41- to 1.74-inch (35.8- to 44.3-millimeter) by 0.88- to 1.09-inch (22.5- to 27.6-millimeter) eggs. Hard-shelled, oval, pink-white eggs manifest 1.06- to 1.54-inch- (27- to 39-millimeter-) long, 0.18- to 0.49-ounce (5.2- to 14-gram) hatchlings in 1.5-inch- (3.81-centimeter-) round, yellow-marked green shells. Hatchlings from August and September need crustaceans, fish and invertebrates whereas clams, crayfish, eelgrass, elodea, fish, green algae, insects, pondweeds, snails, tadpoles and turtle-grass nourish adults.

North American river cooter habitats offer season-coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 5 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20.55 to minus 3.88 degrees Celsius).

Freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers, springs and swamps and saltwater tributaries 98.42 feet (30 meters) from grassy, herbaceous foraging, nesting and sheltering sites protect river cooter lifespans.

Five and three-fourths- to 16.35-inch (14.61- to 41.59-centimeter) lengths respectively queue up for female and male brown, rough-scuted upper-shells (carapaces) with cream yellow-marked concentric circle patterns. Adults reveal brown upper-shells with cream-yellow concentric circle marks, c-patterned costal scutes, dark doughnut-marked marginal scute undersides, yellow lower-shells with dark-seamed scutes and x-patterned front lobes. Texas river cooters showcase narrow-lined lower-shell scute seams and one notched cusp along upper jaws whereas all Texas, Suwanee and eastern males sport long, straight foreclaws.

North American river cooter habitats tender cream-yellow, concentric circle-marked brown upper-shelled bodies, dark-, doughnut-marked horned scutes and yellow lower-shells with dark-seamed scutes and x-marked front lobes.

Yellow chin stripes that are wider than head stripes and fork over upper and lower jaws characterize Eastern river cooter (Pseudemys concinna concinna); July 19, 2008: T. Voeckler, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Juvenile Suwannee River cooter (Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis) basks on perch in Crystal River, Florida; Sept. 11, 2014; photo by Ashley Ballou/FWC: Florida Fish and Wildlife (MyFWCmedia), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/myfwcmedia/15560771496/

Yellow chin stripes that are wider than head stripes and fork over upper and lower jaws characterize Eastern river cooter (Pseudemys concinna concinna); July 19, 2008: T. Voeckler, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pseudemys_concinna_concinna.jpg

For further information:

Aardema, J.; S. Beam; J. Boner; J. Bussone; C. Ewart; I. Kaplan; K. Kiefer; S. Lindsay; E. Merrill; W. Moretz; J. Roberts; E. Rockwell; M. Reott; J. Willson; A. Pickens; W. Guthrie; A. Young; Y. Kornilev; W. Anderson; G. Connette; E. Eskew; E. Teague; M. Thomas; and A. Tutterow. "River Cooter Pseudemys concinna." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/river-cooter/

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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 via IUCN/SSC (Species Survival Commission) Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (TFTSG) @ http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Articles/Carr_1937.pdf

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Available via University of Texas Library Repository@ https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/44679/0485_Pseudemys_texana.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

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Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55023580