Eastern Painted Turtle
Chrysemys picta picta

f7.1 @ 1/640s, ISO:1250, Nikon D3S w 500mm

\"Painted Turtle,\" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.The painted turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to Louisiana and northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The turtle is the only species of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle family Emydidae. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Four regionally based subspecies (the eastern, midland, southern, and western) evolved during the last ice age. The adult painted turtle female is 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long; the male is smaller. The turtle\'s top shell is dark and smooth, without a ridge. Its skin is olive to black with red, orange, or yellow stripes on its extremities. The subspecies can be distinguished by their shells: the eastern has straight-aligned top shell segments; the midland has a large gray mark on the bottom shell; the southern has a red line on the top shell; the western has a red pattern on the bottom shell.

Grassy Pond, Mass Audubon\'s Ashumet Holly Wildlife Reservation, East Falmouth, Massachusetts

06/05/2015