Spotted Turtle basic information

The Spotted Turtle gets its name from the yellow spots that cover its carapace. As a young Spotted Turtle, they have one yellow spot per scute. As the Spotted Turtle ages, its spots begin to fade. Sometimes they completely lack spots and the carapace will be completely black. The carapace is generally a dark brown or black color. The carapace of the Spotted Turtle is smooth. The plastron of the Spotted Turtle is yellow or orange in coloring with black splotches that can sometimes cover the entire breadth of the plastron. Growth rings on the plastron can be used to determine the turtles approximate age. Spotted Turtles are relatively small, measuring from 3.5 inches to 5 inches as adults. The head of the turtle is generally black with a yellow splotch on each side and a variable number of spots covering the rest of it. The upper legs and tail are black in coloring with yellow spots and the neck and lower parts of the legs vary in color from orange to pink.

Male and female Spotted Turtles show an extreme amount of sexual dimorphism. The carapace of a male is more compressed and extended, with a concave plastron. His eyes are brown and his chin is tan, brown, or black. His tail is generally longer with his vent placed beyond the edge of the carapace when his tail is extended. The female Spotted Turtle has a rounder and higher carapace as well as a flat plastron. Her eyes are orange and her chin differs from the male's chin in that it is yellow or orange. Her tail is narrow, and with it completely extended, her vent is at or beneath the edge of the carapace. The female Spotted Turtle also tends to average a larger size than a male Spotted Turtle.

Complete List
African helmeted terrapin	Australian snake necked turtle	Big Headed Turtle	Black Marsh Terrapin	Blanding's Turtle
Bog Turtle	Box Turtle - Chinese	Box Turtle - Eastern	Box Turtle - Gulf Coast	Box Turtle - Indonesian
Box Turtle - Keeled	Box Turtle - Ornate	Box Turtle - Three Toe	Cogwheel Turtle	Diamondback Terrapin
East African Side Necked Turtle	European Pond Turtle	Florida Cooter	Fly River Turtle	Honduran Wood Turtle
Leaf Turtle	Map Turtle	Mata Mata Turtle	Musk Turtle	Painted River Terrapin
Painted Turtle - Eastern	Painted Turtle - Western	Red Eared Slider	Reeve's Terrapin	Snapping Turtle
Softshell Turtle - Black Rayed	Softshell Turtle - Eastern Spiny	Softshell Turtle - Florida	Spotted Turtle	Wood Turtle - Central American
Wood Turtle - North American	Yellow Spotted Amazon River Turtle	African Spurred Tortoise	Aldabra Giant Tortoise	Bow-Sprit Tortoise
Burmese Brown Tortoise	Chaco Tortoise	Desert Tortoise	Egyptian Tortoise	Elongated Tortoise
Forsten's Tortoise	Galapagos Tortoise	Gopher Tortoise	Greek Spur Thighed Tortoise	Hermann's Tortoise
Hingeback Tortoise - Bell's	Hingeback Tortoise - Home's	Impressed Tortoise	Leopard Tortoise	Leopard Tortoise - South African
Marginated Tortoise	Pancake Tortoise	Radiated Tortoise	Red Foot Tortoise	Russian Tortoise
Star Tortoise	Yellow Foot Tortoise

Latest news about Yellow Foot Tortoise

red footed tortoise confusion

I am almost completely positive that I Have a red footed tortoise. However, he is going through a color change that I can't seem to find in any photo or description. Currently his carapce is dark with yellow spots on the center of each ... Continue reading

Tortoises

Russian Tortoise Sulcata Tortoise Spider Tortoise Greek Tortoise Pancake Tortoise Aldabra Giant Tortoise Elongated Tortoise Leopard Tortoise Yellow Foot Tortoise Radiated Tortoise Red Foot Tortoise Indian Star Tortoise. Continue reading

Darwin's Thoery of Evolution: Turtles & Tortoises

The yellow-foot tortoise is the larger cousin of the red-foot tortoise. This name is derived from its several yellow head scales and its carapace is black with a small, distinct yellow area around the areola on each shell scale ... Continue reading

Can Turtles and Iguanas Be Friends?

Yellow Foot Tortoise & Iguana: Yellow Foot Tortoise & Iguana. This was a question I’d never thought to ask - until yesterday, when Allen and I visited our friend AJ, an iguana rehabber. We see AJ at every reptile show at the Westchester ... Continue reading

Evolution & Turtles

These turtles were the red-footed tortoise, box turtle, russian tortoise, yellow-footed tortoise, and mud turtle. Turtles are often referred to as turtles and tortoises with the difference being, that turtle refers to all the species, ... Continue reading

Turtles & Tortoises - Alana Piselli

The Yellow footed tortoise we observed was the largest one. Its shell was greenish brown and beige, for camouflage. This female yellow footed tortoise had only 4 toes per foot with very short claws. These tortoises typically live to be ... Continue reading

Turtle Time 2008!

The Red-foot Tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) originates from central and northern South America. They are medium sized, yet the male is larger and has a concave plastron. Some has red scaled on their legs and their head…some of them ... Continue reading

Cool, strange and interesting facts page 1

The first box of Crayola that was ever sold had the same eight colours that are sold in the box today consisting of red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange, black and brown. The box was sold for a nickel in 1903. Fact 61. ... Continue reading

Galapagos Tortoises...Plus a Dozen Other!

(This is the same type of tortoise as the one above. They start out the size of luncheon plates and grow to be absolutely huge!) (Timothy gleefully holding a yellow foot tortoise.) (Joseph with a similar tortoise.) ... Continue reading

CARE SHEET FOR RED-FOOT AND YELLOW-FOOT TORTOISES

Red-foot and yellow-foot tortoises are medium to large South American Species. The care of both these species is very similar except that the yellow-foot tortoise requires higher humidity levels than the red-foot tortoise. ... Continue reading

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Spotted_Turtle".