Learn more about protecting and identifying your local turtles by visiting www. Protecting Michigan Turtles.
Thursday, Sep 13, By Abby Pointer, MNA Intern In the state of Michigan we are lucky to be the home of multiple turtle species, from the common snapping turtle to the red-eared slider. Eastern box turtle. Wood turtle. Spotted turtle. Leave a comment Comment. It takes about two months for the eggs to hatch. Some baby turtles may spend the winter in the nest and then emerge in the spring. Many predators will find and eat turtle eggs and when the tiny baby turtles emerge from the nest many predators will catch them for an easy meal.
Turtles are among the longest living animals on earth and they take a long time to sexually mature. Box turtles can surpass a century in age; the oldest known box turtle lived to be years old!
Female turtles tend to take longer to reach sexual maturity than males. Some Michigan turtles could take up to 20 years to mature! Turtles cannot climb out of their shell! The upper portion, or carapace, is made of flat bones covered by broad scales and is connected to the backbone and ribs.
The lower shell is the plastron and includes the ribs. Turtles can have different shapes or features to their shells. For example: Box turtles have special hinges that allow them to partly or fully close their shell to protect their head and legs. The spiny soft-shell turtle has a rubbery, pancake-shaped shell for fast swimming. Snapping turtles have hard, heavily armored shells for added protection. Turtles do not have teeth, but have a beak for eating their food.
Turtles that eat meat will have a hooked beak to help them easily slice and tear food apart. Painted turtles. At these wetlands, researchers used turtle shell and claw fragments. A few were sampled for tissues, however. Researchers found that the metals they measured in claws and shells matched up with levels that they saw in tissues. That confirms their method is just as reliable as turtle tissue analysis, without the injury risk. From there, scientists compared their findings to the relatively few available studies they could uncover on freshwater turtles, with some relating to turtles in Iran and Kentucky.
Their results indicated that the metal levels found in the Lake Michigan turtles were somewhere in the medium range. Scientists hope the findings will spur more research into the roles that freshwater turtles play. At first glance, Snapping Turtles can look almost prehistoric. They are the largest freshwater turtle species in Canada, and their shells can grow up to 50 centimeters long and weigh up to Snapping Turtles can be found in almost any freshwater habitat, but they particularly like slow-moving water with soft muddy or sandy bottoms.
If you cross paths with one, keep a respectful distance. These turtles show few if any signs of aging, and may live to be up to 80 years old! They are even studied by scientists doing longevity research. Like many other turtles on this list, they like warm spots by the water. There are so many different types of reptiles you might find around the Great Lakes.
When you're scoping the shore for reptiles, always keep an eye out for sunny logs and rocks in particular. You just might see one of these cold-blooded creatures warming up! Spot these five fish in the Great Lakes. Spot these five frogs in the Great Lakes. Spot these five waterfowl in the Great Lakes. Learn About Nature.
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