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| The Common Musk Turtle, Sternotherus odoratus (Latreille, 1801). Top - photographed in Alexander Co., Illinois. Bottom - Photographed in Will County, Illinois. Also commonly called the "stinkpot." S. odoratus is widespread and relatively common over much of eastern North America from southern Ontario southward to Florida and westward to Texas and Oklahoma. It rarely leaves the water and like many kinosternids may have its shell covered with algae. It can be found in a variety of aquatic habitats.This turtle has also been placed in the genus Kinosternon. The turtles of the genus Sternotherus have a great ely reduced plastron that provides little protection to the head,. legs and tail. |
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| The Loggerhead Musk Turtle, Sternotherus minor (Agassiz, 1857). Photographed along the Pearl River in southern Mississippi. This is one of the few kinosternids that will climb out of the water onto branches (top photo). Adults of this species tend to have very large heads. It is found from eastern Tennessee and western Virginia southward to central Florida and southern Alabama. |
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| The Kinosternidae has 4 genera and about 26 species that are found from Canada southward through the USA into Central America and southward to Bolivia and Argentina. The family is most diverse in Mexico, but the oldest known fossils are from the Oligocene of South Dakota. They are mostly carnivorous with oval or slightly elongated shells. Kinosternids tend to live in shallow water and walk over the bottom as opposed to swimming, and they lay small clutches of eggs, with 1-4 being the most common, but some may lay as many as 16 eggs. |
