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Alligator Snapping Turtle — printable fact sheet
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Alligator Snapping Turtle
Macrochelys temminckii
The alligator snapping turtle is one of very few vertebrates that fishes with a lure. It lies on the river bottom with its jaws open and wiggles a pink, worm-shaped appendage on the floor of its tongue; a fish that comes to inspect the "worm" is taken by a strike that closes the…
Did you know?
- Despite their fearsome appearance and power, alligator snapping turtles are primarily sit-and-wait predators that conserve energy by remaining motionless for hours at a time.
- Its lingual lure engorges with blood to redden it, and the turtle can wiggle it independently — a genuine, muscle-controlled fishing rig. Genetic work has split the animal into more than one species, including the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle of Florida, described as distinct in 2014. They sometimes swallow their own shed skin, and a wild individual may be well over a century old.
What I learned
Draw the alligator snapping turtle
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