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Mata Mata Turtle — printable fact sheet
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Mata Mata Turtle
Chelus fimbriata
Chelus fimbriata of the Amazon and Orinoco basins does not chase, chew or bite. It is a suction feeder, and it is built entirely for the trick: it lies motionless on the bottom of a shallow, tannin-stained backwater, its ragged shell and fringed, flapped, warty head looking exac…
Did you know?
- Despite its bizarre appearance, the Mata Mata Turtle is completely harmless and rarely leaves the water except for nesting.
- The mata mata's suction strike is so fast that high-speed video is needed to see it, and prey are drawn in before they can react. Genetic work published in 2020 split the mata mata into two species, one in the Orinoco and one in the Amazon, after two centuries as a single species. Its algae-covered, ridged shell attracts growth that makes the disguise better with age, so an old mata mata is more convincingly a rotting log than a young one.
What I learned
Draw the mata mata turtle
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