page_title: Spotted turtle
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Spotted turtle / Description
caption_attribution_description: Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata). North Carolina, USA.
context_page_description: The spotted turtle, the only species of the genus Clemmys, is a small, semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of 8–12 cm upon adulthood. Their broad, smooth, low dark-colored upper shell, or carapace, ranges in its exact colour from black to a bluish black with a number of tiny yellow round spots. The spotting patterning extends from the head, to the neck and out onto the limbs. Males and females can be distinguished by differences in plastron shape and eye and chin colouration.
  Spotted turtles are aquatic omnivores that inhabit a variety of semi-aquatic or in other words, shallow, fresh-water areas such as flooded forests, marshes, wet meadows, bogs and woodland streams in southern Canada and the eastern US: the eastern Great Lakes and east of the Appalachian Mountains.
context_section_description: The spotted turtle is small and has a gray to black base color. Its upper shell (carapace) is smooth, does not have a central ridge running down the middle (called a "keel"), and grows to 3.5–12.5 cm (1.4–4.9 in) in length.  It is also totally black and contains anywhere from zero to about one hundred yellow spots, which are a defining characteristic of this turtle.  Although perhaps inconsequential, it has been found that the left side of the upper shell has more spots than the right.  Spots can always be found on the head, neck, and limbs. The bottom shell (plastron) is yellow or orange-yellow and a black spot is present on each section (scute); however, with age, melanism of the plastron increases until the entire surface is black.
  The head is black and the upper jaw is notched.  On each side of the head is a large orange blotch.  Also present are several yellow bands of varying size.  Skin on the dorsal side of the turtle is black with sparse yellow spots while skin on the ventral side may be brighter: orange, pink, or red.  These lightly pigmented areas do vary geographically  and the tail of some individuals has yellow striping.  Regarding the geographical variation in spots, southern individuals tend to have smaller and less conspicuous spots than those of individuals from farther north.  The spotted turtle's karyotype consists of 50 chromosomes.
  Visual differences between male and female turtles develop around the time of sexual maturity. The male spotted turtle has a tan chin, brown eyes, and a long, thick tail.  The chin of the female is yellow; she also has orange eyes and a shorter tail than the male.  In addition, the bottom shell of males is concave while it is either flat or convex in females.  On average, females grow to be slightly larger than males.  Also, females have more spots than males (on average).
  Hatchlings resemble the adults closely. Consistently, each segment of the upper shell has only one yellow spot.
caption: Carapace is keelless and contains a varying number of yellow spots
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