Chelydra serpentina

The common snapping turtle is a species of large, freshwater turtles in the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia, and Florida. The present-day C. serpentina population in the Middle Rio Grande suggests that the common snapping turtle has been present in this drainage since at least the 17th century and is likely native. The three species of Chelydra and the larger alligator snapping turtles are the only extant chelydrids, a family now restricted to the Americas. The common snapping turtle, as its name implies, is the most widespread.

Chelydra serpentina

Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife · 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
Common snapping turtlePBDB
Sits inside
ChelydraPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Chelydridae
Life habit
aquatic, solitaryPBDB, for Chelydridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Chelydridae

Time the record covers

At least 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 29 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 29 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 23 of 29 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 29 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–990 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence330 ka–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

29 occurrences of Chelydra serpentina 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

29 occurrences

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

6 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°W

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The named rock units Chelydra serpentina has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chelydra serpentina and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Chelydra serpentina and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

800 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Chelydra serpentina, 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

23 references

Each of the 29 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. 11 further references are not listed. 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 content3

Picture of Chelydra serpentina

Credit
Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Chelydra serpentina · ism:ism-amphibians & reptiles:691831

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
zmmu
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itChelydra through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)