Eastern Painted Turtle

I got this overhead view of an Eastern Painted Turtle last summer. I think it gives a really good view of the scute alignment that can differentiate the Eastern Painted Turtle from the Midland Painted Turtle. Both of these are essentially the same turtle. They're different subspecies of the same species, so interbreeding would presumably happen quite a bit except they have somewhat different ranges.

August 30, 2022 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 229847442, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Each of those "shell pieces" is a scute; this picture illustrates that alignment I've talked about.

Across the middle of the back, scutes align perfectly




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