Reptiles Database

Order Testudines
Suborder Cryptodira
Superfamily Testudinoidea

Family Chelydridae (Snapping Turtles)


The family Chelydridae contains only three species in three monotypic genera.

Chelydra serpentina.
© Peter Uetz.

Appearance: Chelydrids are large freshwater turtles with massive heads. Their head is indeed so big that it cannot be retracted fully within the shell. The same is true for their limbs. The carapaces of chelydrids are flattened, triridged, and nearly rectangular in outline, and the plastrons are reduced. The three species have unusually long tails, almost equaling the length of their carapaces.

Size: Macrochelys (formerly Macroclemys) is one of the heaviest freshwater turtles worldwide (max. carapax length 80 cm, max. weight 80 kg).

Distribution: North America (Chelydrinae), China and Indochina (Platysterninae).

Relationships: Platysternon has been considered as a member of the Testudinidae or as a separate family, Platysternidae.

Habitat: Chelydra serpentina inhabits both freshwater and brackish water. Macrochelys lives in rivers, lakes and swamps

Food: Mostly carnivorous (preys include fish, molluscs, worms and other aquatic invertebrates); Chelydra serpentina is an omnivorous species.

Behaviour: Mostly nocturnal foragers. Macrochelys lures fish into its open mouth with a fleshy projection of the tongue that mimics a wormlike prey.

List of genera:

Subfamily Chelydrinae

Subfamily Platysterninae

Reference:

Wermuth,H. & Mertens,R. (1977)
Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien:
Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia
Das Tierreich, Lfg. 100, XXVII + 174 pp.
Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York

Zug,G.R.; Vitt, L.J. & Caldwell, J.P. (2001)
Herpetology, 2nd ed.
Academic Press San Diego, London, [...]XIV + 630 pp.

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