Common Musk Turtle
Sternotherus odoratus
Summary 7
Sternotherus odoratus is a species of small turtle native to southeastern Canada and much of the Eastern United States. It is also known as the common musk turtle or stinkpot due to its ability to release a foul musky odor from scent glands on the edge of its shell, possibly to deter predation.
Distribution 8
Sternotherus odoratus, or the common musk turtle, is a widespread and abundant species that can be found along the coast of the eastern United States from the northeastern states down into Florida. Their range extends west to the Great Lakes region, through Illinois, to western Kansas and Oklahoma and reaches its western most distribution in central Texas. This musk turtle occurs further north than all of the other musk turtles. (Grzimek 1975, Whitfield 1984, Conant and Collins 1998, Bartlett and Bartlett 1999).
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Sources and Credits
- (c) Alan Wolf, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/90055788@N00/35640439
- (c) 2011 Todd Pierson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=347791&one=T
- (c) Biodiversity Heritage Library, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8018/7210983964_3bbf640557_o.jpg
- (c) Matthew Niemiller, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0110/2384.jpeg
- (c) 2010 Matthew Niemiller, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0110/2385.jpeg
- (c) Matthew Niemiller, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0110/2770.jpeg
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sternotherus_odoratus
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31424490
