There are light yellow lines on the head and limbs. There are three large blotches on each side of the head that will distinguish Ouachita map turtles from all our other map turtles. One is behind the eye, one is just below the eye, and the third is just below the mouth line. These blotches are big enough to be seen with a good pair of binoculars, but be careful. Less than three light lines reach the eye.
Females grow much larger than the males.
Adult males have long claws on the front feet, and a long, thick tail with the cloacal opening past the edge of the carapace. Young have brighter shells and light yellow or orange rings that fades quickly, a dark pattern on the plastron, and a pronounced vertebral keel. Graptemys ouachitensis ouachitensis is the only subspecies found in Iowa. Adults in the Mississippi River will sometimes be intermediate in appearance. They are found in large numbers in the Mississippi, often usually out numbering the false map turtles.