Females tend to grow larger than males. The stripe down the outside of the hind foot is an identifying characteristic. While marked similarly to the river cooter, it lacks the stripe on the hind feet. This is one of the larger subspecies. The carapace is intricately patterned and there is an indentation on the bridge.
Plastral pattern is well developed.
It is smaller and lighter in color than other cooters. The carapace scutes are marked with vertical, curved stripes, rather than the usual reticulate pattern. The plastral pattern is dark and clear. Ernst elevated P. gorzugi to full species status in an earlier paper, while Iverson includes it as a P. concinna subspecies. In The Wild Habitat River cooters live in a wide variety of freshwater and even brackish locations.