Plymouth and Northern Red-Bellied Turtles: Notched Jaws, Striped Faces

Summary: North American red-bellied turtle habitats get crest-to-snout stripes, notch-tipped upper jaws, red bellies, red-barred scutes and webbed hindfeet.

Two adult red-bellied cooters (Pseudemys rubriventris) bask on a log in Federal Pond, Plymouth, southeastern Massachusetts; photo credit Bill Byrne/Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- Northeast Region), Public Domain, via Flickr

North American red-bellied turtle habitats accumulate in brackish, fresh and marshy distribution ranges throughout Mid-Atlantic coastal plains from southern New Jersey through northeastern North Carolina and in Plymouth County, Naushon Island, Massachusetts.

Red-bellied turtles bear their common name for red lower-shells (plastrons) that brighten dark-marked scute (plate) seams and black-brown upper-shells (carapaces) that brandish red-barred, rough marginal scutes. Plymouth and northern red-belled turtle subspecies correlate scientifically with Pseudemys rubriventris bangsi for Outram Bangs (Jan. 12, 1863-Sep. 22, 1932) and Pseudemys rubriventris rubriventris (false-turtle red-bellied). Descriptions in 1830 by Joseph Le Conte (Feb. 26, 1823-July 6, 1901) and in 1937 by H.L. Babcock, medical practitioner in Boston Massachusetts, determine scientific designations.

Plymouth and northern red-bellied turtle life cycles expect brackish marshes and deep lakes, ponds, rivers and streams in Mid-Atlantic, New England and Potomac River vegetated wetlands.

March through May, May through July and August through September function as Plymouth and northern North American red-bellied turtle breeding, egg incubation and hatchling emergence months.

Plymouth and northern red-bellied turtles generally go undetected other than after rains and during earlier daytime hours as Emydidae box, marsh and pond turtle family members. They have emydid habits of heading toward sun-warmed grasses, ground-cover, logs, rocks and stumps and of harboring toxins from helping themselves to wild berries and  mushrooms. Plymouth and northern red-bellied turtle subspecies incline toward terrestrial (landed) over aquatic (watery) life cycles even though each hindfoot is untortoise-like in its elongated, flattened webbedness.

Agroindustrialists and predatory bass, crows, foxes, herons, leeches, millipedes, minks, muskrats, opossums, pickerel, raccoons, skunks and snakes jeopardize Plymouth and northern North American red-bellied turtle habitats.

Plymouth and northern red-bellied turtle males keep elongated foreclaws on female heads and necks during elaborate courtships that other box, marsh and pond turtles likewise know.

Females lay 8 to 20 elliptical, 1.375-inch- (3.49-centimeter-) long, thin-shelled eggs in flask-shaped, 4-inch- (10.16-centimeter-) long nest cavities for hatchling emergences 9 to 18 weeks later. Their hindfeet move into their underground incubators eggs whose hatchlings may overwinter in birthing nests before moving into 6.56- to 11.48-foot- (2- to 3.5-meter-) deep water. Berries, crayfish, fish, Myriophyllum, Sagittaria and Utricularia algae, insect larvae, slugs, snails, spiders, tadpoles, water hyacinth and worms nourish omnivorous (everything-eating) Plymouth and northern red-bellied turtles.

North American red-bellied turtle habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 15 to minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26.11 to minus 12.22 degrees Celsius).

Cranberry ponds, gravelly, sandy coastal plains, human-made reservoirs, pitch pine and scrub oak barrens, rocks, vegetation mats and wood debris promote Plymouth and northern red-bellied turtles.

Ten to 15.75 inches (25.4 to 39.37 centimeters) queue up as total length ranges for upper-shells with 12 flattened, red-barred, rough, semi-concave scutes on each side. Adults reveal a prominently notched tip, amid toothlike cusps, to the upper jaw and an arrow-like stripe from the crest, between the eyes, to the snout. They showcase arrow-shaped, yellow-banded, striped heads, clawed feet, green skin and pink lower-shells if female, gray-bordered red if male and orange on green upper-shells if juvenile.

Black-brown bodies with crest-to-snout facial stripes, flattened, red-barred, rough, semi-concave upper-shell scutes, notch-tipped upper jaws, red bellies and webbed hindfeet traverse North American red-bellied turtle habitats.

Headstart northern red-bellied cooter hatchling is one of over 100 red-bellied hatchlings released into DFW (Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife) Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area in Hanson, Plymouth County, southeastern Massachusetts, during Celebrate Turtles, Friday, May 27, 2011; MassWildlife's Red-bellied Cooter Headstart program, begun in 1984, pairs with foster institutions to care for hatchlings prior to safe release into the wild; photo credit Bill Byrne/MassWildlife: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- Northeast Region), Public Domain, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Two adult red-bellied cooters (Pseudemys rubriventris) bask on a log in Federal Pond, Plymouth, southeastern Massachusetts; photo credit Bill Byrne/Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- Northeast Region), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsnortheast/5861462496/

Headstart northern red-bellied cooter hatchling is one of over 100 red-bellied hatchlings released into DFW (Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife) Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area in Hanson, Plymouth County, southeastern Massachusetts, during Celebrate Turtles, Friday, May 27, 2011; MassWildlife's Red-bellied Cooter Headstart program, begun in 1984, pairs with foster institutions to care for hatchlings prior to safe release into the wild; photo credit Bill Byrne/MassWildlife: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- Northeast Region), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsnortheast/5860912885/

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. "Northern Red-bellied Cooter Pseudemys rubriventris." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/northern-red-bellied-cooter/

Babcock, H.L. (Harold Lester). 14 July 1937. "A New Subspecies of the Red-Bellied Terrapin Pseudemys rubriventris (Le Conte): Pseudemys rubriventris bangsi, subsp. nov." Occasional Papers of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. 8: 293-294. Boston MA: Boston Society of Natural History.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/occasionalpapers08bost#page/293/mode/1up

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Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12636600
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Available @ https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=1255

Holbrook, John Edwards. 1838. "Emys Rubriventris -- Leconte." North American Herpetology; Or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. II: 37-40. Philadelphia PA: J. Dobson.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3688332

Le Conte, Major J. (John Eatton). 1830. "Description of the Species of North American Tortoises. Read December 7, 1829.: 3. Testudo rubriventris, L.C." Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, vol. III: 101-102. New York NY: Printed for The Lyceum by G.P. Scott & Co., 1828-1836.
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Ward, Joseph P. 1984. "Relationships of the Chrysemyd Turtles of North America (Testudiies: Emydidae): Pseudemys (Ptychemys) rubriventris." Special Publications The Museum Texas Tech University, no. 21: 46. Lubbock TX: Texas Tech Press.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55023536