Terrapins Terrapins Terrapins have been given the scientific name Malaclemys terrapin. There are seven different kinds of Malaclemys terrapin. Water is brackish if it contains some salt, but it is not as salty as ocean water. Diamondback terrapins are the only turtles in the world that live exclusively in brackish water.
Terrapins are gray-brown in color with diamond shaped or elongated hexagon markings on their shell.
The outside of the top shell is covered with thin, shiny scales called scutes, made of a protein called keratin. Terrapins, with shells that can reach lengths of up to two feet, are similar in shape to sea turtles, but have large column-like webbed feet with claws, not flippers. In the early 1900's terrapins were considered a great delicacy. In the late 1800s terrapin soup was a dish of the rich, so popular that 89,150 pounds were caught in the Chesapeake Bay region in 1891. Terrapins were the most expensive turtles in the world.