Macrochelys temminckii

The alligator snapping turtle is a large species of turtle in the family Chelydridae. They are the largest freshwater turtle in North America. The species is endemic to freshwater habitats in the United States. M. temminckii is one of the heaviest living freshwater turtles in the world. It is often associated with, but not closely related to, the common snapping turtle, which is in the genus Chelydra. The specific epithet temminckii is in honor of Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck.

Macrochelys temminckii

Gary M. Stolz/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public Domain · 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
Alligator snapping turtlePBDB
Sits inside
MacrochelysPBDB
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 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 8 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 8 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7 Mya129 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Macrochelys temminckii 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

8 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

4 formations

Bermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.78°N, 82.68°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°W

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The named rock units Macrochelys temminckii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macrochelys temminckii and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Macrochelys temminckii and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

361 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Macrochelys temminckii, 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

8 references

Each of the 8 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 content1

Picture of Macrochelys temminckii

Credit
Gary M. Stolz/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Macrochelys temminckii was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMacrochelys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Troost 1835)