''Kinosternon'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of small aquatic

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

s from the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

known commonly as mud turtles.

Geographic range

They are found in the United States,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, and South America. The greatest species richness is in Mexico, and only three species ('' K. dunni'', '' K. leucostomum'', and '' K. scorpioides'') are found in South America.

Description

They are very similar to the musk turtles, but generally smaller in size, and their

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...

s are not as highly

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

Diet

All mud turtles are

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

, consuming various aquatic

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s (especially

molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

and

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

s) ,

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, and even

carrion Carrion (), also known as a carcass, is the decaying flesh of dead animals. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures ...

Behavior

Mud turtles live in the ground layer on the bed of bodies of slowly-flowing or still water. By burrowing deeply into mud, mud turtles are protected from danger. They occasionally like to bask in the sun. Kinosternon acutum 61641648

Species

Extant

* Central Chiapas mud turtle - ''K. abaxillare'' (Baur, 1925) *

Tabasco mud turtle The Tabasco mud turtle (''Kinosternon acutum''), commonly known as pochitoque in Tabasco, Mexico, is a small turtle which belongs to the family Kinosternidae. It can be found in central Veracruz, Tabasco, northern Guatemala and Belize. This turt ...

- ''K. acutum''

Gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

, 1831 * Alamos mud turtle - ''K. alamosae''

Berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the cul ...

& Legler, 1980 * Central American mud turtle - ''K. angustipons'' Legler, 1965 * Striped mud turtle - ''K. baurii'' ( Garman, 1891) *

Jalisco mud turtle The Jalisco mud turtle (''Kinosternon chimalhuaca'') is a species of mud turtle in the Kinosternidae family endemic to Mexico. It is found in Colima and Jalisco. They live in freshwater habitats like swamps or quiet rivers. Jalisco mud turtles ...

- ''K. chimalhuaca'' Berry, Seidel, & Iverson, 1996 * Cora mud turtle - ''K. cora'' Loc-Barragán ''et al''., 2020 *

Creaser's mud turtle Creaser's mud turtle (''Kinosternon creaseri'') is a species of mud turtle in the Family (biology), family Kinosternidae. The species is Endemism, endemic to the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico. The Specific name (zoology), specific na ...

- ''K. creaseri'' Hartweg, 1934 * Dunn's mud turtle - ''K. dunni'' Schmidt, 1947 * Durango mud turtle - ''K. durangoense'' Iverson, 1979 * Yellow mud turtle - ''K. flavescens'' (

Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

, 1857) * Herrera's mud turtle - ''K. herrerai'' Stejneger, 1925 * Rough-footed mud turtle - ''K. hirtipes'' ( Wagler, 1830) **Valley of Mexico mud turtle - ''K. h. hirtipes'' (Wagler, 1830) **Lake Chapala mud turtle - ''K. h. chapalaense'' Iverson, 1981 **San Juanico mud turtle - ''K. h. magdalense'' Iverson, 1981 **Viesca mud turtle - ''K. h. megacephalum'' Iverson, 1981 (extinct) **Mexican plateau mud turtle - ''K. h. murrayi'' Glass and Hartweg, 1951 **Patzcuarco mud turtle - ''K. h. tarascense'' Iverson, 1981 * Mexican mud turtle - ''K. integrum'' (LeConte, 1954) * White-lipped mud turtle - ''K. leucostomum'' A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1851 **Northern white-lipped mud turtle - ''K. l. leucostomum'' A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1851 **Southern white-lipped mud turtle - ''K. l. postinguinale'' (Cope, 1887) * Pacific red-cheeked mud turtle - ''K. mexicanum'' Iverson & Berry, 2024Iverson, J. B., & Berry, J. F. (2024). Morphometric Variation in the Red-Cheeked Mud Turtle (Kinosternon cruentatum) and its Taxonomic Implications. Chelonian Conservation and Biology: Celebrating 25 Years as the World’s Turtle and Tortoise Journal.https://doi.org/10.2744/CCB-1589.1 * Oaxaca mud turtle - ''K. oaxacae'' Berry & Iverson, 1980 *

Scorpion mud turtle The scorpion mud turtle or Tabasco mud turtle (''Kinosternon scorpioides'') is a species of mud turtle in the family Kinosternidae. It is found in Mexico, Central and South America. Description The scorpion mud turtle is a medium to large kin ...

- ''K. scorpioides'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

, 1766) ** Kinosternon scorpioides cruentatum 416917698

Scorpion mud turtle (subspecies) - ''K. s. scorpioides'' (Linnaeus, 1766) **White-throated mud turtle - ''K. s. albogulare'' (A.H.A. Duméril and Bocourt, 1870) **Red-cheeked mud turtle - ''K. s. cruentatum'' (A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1851) * Sonora mud turtle - ''K. sonoriense'' ( Le Conte, 1854) **Sonora mud turtle (subspecies) - ''K. s. sonoriense'' (Le Conte, 1854) **Sonoyta mud turtle - ''K. s. longifemorale'' (Iverson, 1981) * Florida mud turtle - ''K. steindachneri'' ( Siebenrock, 1906) *

Arizona mud turtle The Arizona mud turtle (''Kinosternon stejnegeri'') is a species of mud turtle in the family Kinosternidae found in the deserts of Arizona (United States) and Sonora (Mexico). It is a semi-aquatic turtle. It lives in impermanent puddles, and ...

- ''K.'' ''stejnegeri'' Gilmore, 1923'''' * Eastern mud turtle - ''K. subrubrum'' ( Bonnaterre, 1789) **Eastern mud turtle (subspecies) - ''K. s. subrubrum'' (Bonnaterre, 1789) **Mississippi mud turtle - ''K. s. hippocrepis'' (Bonnaterre, 1789) * Vallarta mud turtle - ''K. vogti'' López-Luna ''et al''., 2018

Extinct

* †'' Kinosternon arizonense'' Gilmore, 1923 (known from Plio-Pleistocene

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

remains, formerly considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with ''K. stejnegeri'')'''' * †'' Kinosternon notolophus'' Bourque, 2016 * †'' Kinosternon pannekollops'' Bourque, 2016 * †'' Kinosternon pojoaque'' * †'' Kinosternon rincon'' Bourque, 2016 * †'' Kinosternon skullridgescens'' * †'' Kinosternon wakeeniense'' Bourque, 2016

References

;Bibliography * {{Taxonbar , from=Q2500468 Turtle genera Taxa named by Johann Baptist von Spix