Diamondback Terrapins: Big Eyes, Pale Jaws, Sculpted Shell, Webfeet

Summary: North American diamondback terrapin habitats get big eyes, dotted heads, hingeless lower-shells, pale jaws, sculpted upper-shells and webbed hindfeet.

diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin); Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Jackson County, southeastern Mississippi; July 24, 2008; photo by Christina Mohrmann/Grand Bay NERR: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

North American diamondback terrapin habitats assume in Mid-Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain distribution ranges from the Cape Cod extension of Massachusetts southward through Florida and then southwestward through Texas and everywhere in-between.

Carolina (Malaclemys terrapin centrata), Florida (M.t. tequesta), mangrove (M.t. rhizophorarum), Mississippi (M.t. pileata), northern (M.t. terrapin), ornate (M.t. macrospilota) and Texas (M.t. littoralis) diamondbacks become subspecies. They respectively commemorate Pierre Latreille's (Nov. 29, 1762-Feb. 6, 1833), Albert Schwartz's (Sep. 13, 1923-Oct. 18, 1992) and Henry Fowler's (March 23, 1878-June 21, 1965) classifications. They denote Prince zu Wied-Neuwied's (Sep. 23, 1782-Feb. 3, 1867), William Hay's (Dec. 8, 1871-Jan. 26, 1947) and Johann Schoepff's (March 8, 1752-Sep. 10, 1800) descriptions.

Carolina, Florida, mangrove, Mississippi, ornate, Texas and northern diamondback terrapin life cycles expect lagoons behind barrier beaches, mud and tidal flats, salt-marsh estuaries and sand dunes.

April through September annually furnish earliest to latest breeding, egg incubation and hatchling emergence months for Carolina, Florida, mangrove, Mississippi, ornate, Texas and northern diamondback terrapins.

Carolina, Florida, mangrove, Mississippi, ornate, Texas and northern diamondback terrapins generally go about secretively and undetectably because of their and chicken turtles' flesh garnering culinary kudos. They have the emydid turtle family habit of harboring toxins in their flesh from helping themselves to invertebrate food sources hurt by pesticide exposure and ingestion. Their daytime itineraries include sun-warmed interludes atop marshy, muddy, rocky, sandy coastal flats and, despite their elongated, flattened, land-unfriendly, untortoise-like, water-unfriendly webbed hindfeet, diurnal walking interludes.

Agroindustrialists, breeders, collectors, dead-bait fishers, drillers, hunters, motor boat operators, polluters, sand vehicle drivers, seaside developers and underwater crab trappers jeopardize North American diamondback terrapin habitats.

Carolina, Florida east coast, mangrove, Mississippi, northern, ornate and Texas diamondback terrapins know elaborate courtships before internal fertilizations of blunt-ended, leathery, 1.25-inch- (32-millimeter-) long, thin-shelled eggs.

Females lay 4 to 18 pink-white eggs in April and May in 4- to 8-inch- (10- to 20-centimeter-) deep cavities along sand dunes and sand-edged marshes. Incubation makes up 9 to 15 weeks of life cycles that mature Carolina, Florida, mangrove, Mississippi, northern, ornate and Texas diamondback terrapins within about 7 years. Aquatic insects, carrion, clams, crabs, fish, marine worms, mussels, periwinkle snails and shrimp nourish omnivorous (everything-eating) Carolina, Florida, mangrove, Mississippi, ornate, Texas and northern diamondback terrapins.

North American diamondback terrapin habitats offer season-coldest coastal temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 10 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.33 to minus 3.88 degrees Celsius).

Barrier islands, cordgrass, filamentous algae, glassworts, plantains, reeds, sand dunes, sea lavender and underwater vegetation promote Carolina, Florida, mangrove, Mississippi, ornate, Texas and northern diamondback terrapins.

Female and male upper-shells (carapaces) with sculptured scutes (plates) queue up 4- to 5.5-inch (10.16- to 13.97-centimeter) and 6- to 9.375-inch (15.2- to 23.81-centimeter) total lengths. Carolina, northern, ornate and Texas subspecies respectively reveal oval, wedge-shaped, center-, orange-yellow-blotched and rear-ridged black-brown-gray upper-shells even though Florida subspecies reveal oval, pale-centered, shallow-scuted black-brown-gray upper-shells. Carolina, Florida, mangrove, northern and ornate subspecies show dark-blotched, dark-flecked, green-yellow, hingeless, oblong plastrons even though Mississippi and Texas subspecies respectively support yellow and white lower-shells.

North American diamondback habitats tailor their uniformly big-eyed, black-peppered, pale-jawed gray heads to mangrove-exclusive striped legs and necks, Mississippi-only dark-skinned legs and Texas-specific black-spotted gray-green legs.

An adult female diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) balances on a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) employee's arm; Chesapeake Bay, Maryland; July 5, 2002: Mary Hollinger/NOAA NODC (National Oceanographic Data Center), Public Domain, via NOAA Photo Library

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin); Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Jackson County, southeastern Mississippi; July 24, 2008; photo by Christina Mohrmann/Grand Bay NERR: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/5735113406/

An adult female diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) balances on a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) employee's arm; Chesapeake Bay, Maryland; July 5, 2002: Mary Hollinger/NOAA NODC (National Oceanographic Data Center), Public Domain, via NOAA Photo Library @ http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/line2365.htm

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