Painted Turtle

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Painted Turtle

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Emydidae
Genus:	Chrysemys
Species:	C. picta

Binomial name

Chrysemys picta
(Schneider, 1783)

Subspecies

C. p. picta - Eastern Painted Turtle
C. p. dorsalis - Southern Painted Turtle
C. p. marginata - Midland Painted Turtle
C. p. belli - Western Painted Turtle

"Painted Turtle" is also the name of an imprint of Wayne State University Press.

For the summer camp, see The Painted Turtle.

The Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) is a reptile that is common in North America, and is a water turtle related to other water turtles such as sliders and cooters. This turtle lives in ponds, lakes, marshes, and in slow-moving rivers that have soft, muddy bottoms. Its shell is used to protect it from its predators. The bottom of the Painted turtle's shell has a beautiful design that (hence the name) lookes like it is painted.

The Painted Turtle is the only species in the genus Chrysemys. It is comprised of 4 sub-species.

1 Behavior
2 Reproduction
3 Diet
4 Development

[edit] Behavior

In the wild, this turtle may live for twenty to thirty years [1]; in captivity, it can live over twenty years. The painted turtle spends most of its time in the water, but often lies on floating logs in the sun, as well as on rocks or by the shore. During very cold weather, painted turtles hibernate, burying themselves for months in the mud beneath streams and ponds. The mud acts as an insulator and helps to keep the turtles from freezing in harsh winter months. Painted turtles can survive long winters in ice-covered ponds because they can live for several months without breathing oxygen with their lungs.

[edit] Reproduction

Mating begins after hibernation and before feeding begins when the water temperature are still low. Fall mating may also occur. Temperature is a major environmental cue for the regulation of the seasonal gonadal cycle, but the thermal dependence of the reproductive system differs markedly fro the two sexes. The breeding season lasts from late spring to early summer. Males mature about 70-95mm plastron length, usually at 3-5 years of age. Females at take longer(6-10 years) and are larger at maturity. In the early summer females lay 4 to 15 oval, soft shelled eggs, in a flask-shaped hole. Females choose soft, sandy soil with good exposure to the sun in which to dig the hole. Once the eggs are laid they are cover the hole and leave. The young hatch and dig out of the nest on their own, they are independent immediately.

[edit] Diet

The Painted Turtle, when young, eats mostly carnivorously, dining on larvae, crickets, beetles and maggots. When it matures, it eats more omnivorously, with its primary diet including duckweed, water lilies and algal matter, as well as eating insects, worms, leeches, crayfish, tadpoles, snails and small fish.

[edit] Development

In the early summer, females lay 4 to 15 oval, soft-shelled eggs, in a flask-shaped hole. Females choose soft, sandy soil with good exposure to the sun in which to dig the hole. Once the eggs are laid, they cover the hole and leave. The young hatch and dig out of the nest on their own. They are independent immediately.

The gender of the turtle is decided based upon the incubation temperature. Low temperatures during incubation produce males, and high temperatures produce females. The availability of water in the nests is more important than temperature in influencing survival, metabolism, and growth of the embryos.