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Apalone spinifera (Lesueur, 1827) – spiny softshell turtle - Canada (southern Ontario and Quebec), most of the United States, and northeastern Mexico. Nota bene : A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Apalone .
The spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera) is a species of softshell turtle, one of the largest freshwater turtle species in North America.Both the common name, spiny softshell, and the specific name, spinifera (spine-bearing), refer to the spiny, cone-like projections on the leading edge of the carapace, which are not scutes (scales).
The Florida softshell turtle is a large turtle with a flattened, pancake-like body, a long neck, an elongated head with a long snorkel-like nose, and large webbed feet, each with three claws. While most turtles have hard shells composed of scutes , the Florida softshell turtle has a cartilaginous carapace covered in leathery skin.
A. mutica is native to the United States, where it is distributed throughout the central and south-central states. Its natural geographic range extends from western Pennsylvania in the east to New Mexico in the west, as far north as the Dakotas, and south to the westernmost Florida Panhandle, where it is eventually replaced by the Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox).
Apalone spinifera spinifera has sometimes been used only to designate populations east of the Mississippi, while populations west of the Mississippi have been designated Apalone spinifera hartwegi. The subspecific name hartwegi is in honor of Dr. Norman Edouard Hartweg (1904–1964), who was a specialist in turtles and professor of zoology at ...
The Cuatro Ciénegas softshell (Apalone spinifera atra), also called the black spiny softshell, is a subspecies of the spiny softshell turtle in the family Trionychidae. It is found only in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in the Mexican state of Coahuila and it is considered critically endangered by the IUCN . [ 1 ]
Turtles of the family Trionychidae are called "softshell" because their carapaces lack horny scutes (scales), though the spiny softshell, Apalone spinifera, does have some scale-like projections, to which its common name refers. The carapace is leathery and pliable, particularly at the sides.
Apalone spinifera asper – Stubbs, 1989 Apalone spinifera aspera – Iverson, Meylan, Pritchard, Seidel & Ward, 1990 The Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle ( Apalone spinifera aspera ), a subspecies in the Trionychidae family of softshell turtles , is endemic to the south-eastern United States.