Trachemys scripta

The pond slider is a species of common, medium-sized, semiaquatic turtle. Three subspecies are described, the most recognizable of which is the red-eared slider, which is popular in the pet trade and has been introduced to other parts of the world by people releasing it to the wild. Hatchling and juvenile pond sliders have a green upper shell (carapace), yellow bottom shell (plastron), and green and yellow stripes and markings on their skin. These patterns and colors in the skin and shell fade with age until the carapace is a muted olive green to brown and the plastron is a dull yellow or darker. Some sliders become almost black with few visible markings. The carapace is oval with a bit of rounding and a central crest with knobs, but these features soften and fade with age, adults being smoother and flatter. For determining an adult slider's sex, males typically have much longer front claws than adult females, while females usually have shorter, more slender tails than males. Their lifespans range from 20 to 50 years.

Trachemys scripta

Happyswissman · CC BY 3.0 · 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
sliderPBDB
Sits inside
TrachemysPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Emydidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Emydidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Emydidae

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 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 10 of 12 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 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 0.0 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.7 Mya129 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Trachemys scripta 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

12 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

3 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Trachemys scripta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Trachemys scripta and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Trachemys scripta and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

433 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Trachemys scripta, 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

12 references

Each of the 12 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 content3

Picture of Trachemys scripta

Credit
Happyswissman
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Trachemys scripta · zmuc:rept:R25206

3D model

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

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 itTrachemys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schoepff 1792)