Apalone ferox
The Florida softshell turtle is a species of turtle in the family Trionychidae. The species is native to the Southeastern United States. The maximum recorded lifespan of a Florida softshell turtle is 26 years.

Johnskate17 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- Florida softshell turtlePBDB
- Sits inside
- ApalonePBDB
- Diet
- piscivore, carnivorePBDB, for Trionychidae
- Life habit
- aquatic, solitaryPBDB, for Trionychidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Trionychidae
- Environment
- brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Trionychidae
Time the record covers
At least 7.1 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.
10 occurrences of Apalone ferox on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
10 occurrences- Miocene20%
- Pliocene6%
- Pleistocene74%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
4 formations
- Bermont Formation2
- Fort Thompson Formation1
- St. Marys Formation · Chesapeake Group1
- St Marys Formation · Chesapeake Group1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Apalone ferox has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Apalone ferox and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Apalone ferox and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
317 taxa- Dasypus bellus7 sites
- Equus7 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus7 sites
- Alligator mississippiensis6 sites
- Lepisosteus6 sites
- Pogonias cromis5 sites
- Terrapene carolina5 sites
- Atractosteus spatula4 sites
- Carcharhinus leucas4 sites
- Carcharias taurus4 sites
- Castoroides dilophidus4 sites
- Chelydra serpentina4 sites
- Hemiauchenia macrocephala4 sites
- Hesperotestudo crassiscutata4 sites
- Kinosternon4 sites
- Lepomis microlophus4 sites
- Mammut americanum4 sites
- Mugil4 sites
- Myliobatis4 sites
- Negaprion brevirostris4 sites
- Palaeolama mirifica4 sites
- Paramylodon harlani4 sites
- Prionotus4 sites
- Procyon lotor4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Apalone ferox, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
9 references- Miocene and Pliocene Chelonians from the Calvert Cliffs and Nearby Regions2
- A new early Pleistocene tapir (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from Florida, with a review of Blancan tapirs from around the state1
- Collared peccary (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Tayassuidae, Pecari) from the late Pleistocene of Florida1
- Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) vertebrate faunas from coastal Georgia1
- Middle Pleistocene (early Rancholabrean) vertebrates and associated marine and non-marine invertebrates from Oldsmar, Pinnellas County, Florida1
- The Tucker Borrow Pit: Paleontology and Stratigraphy of a Plio-Pleistocene fossil site in Brevard County, Florida1
- Pleistocene amphibians and reptiles from the Leisey Shell Pit, Hillsborough County, Florida1
- Stratigraphy, paleoecology, and vertebrate fauna of the Leisey Shell Pit Local Fauna, early Pleistocene (Irvingtonian) of southwestern Florida1
- Amphibians and reptiles from the Pleistocene (Illinoian) of Williston, Florida1
Each of the 10 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Apalone ferox
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Johnskate17
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Apalone ferox · pchp:7043
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itApalone through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schneider 1783)