Chrysemys picta

The painted turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America. This turtle is a member of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle family Emydidae. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Three regionally based subspecies evolved during the last ice age. The southern painted turtle (C. dorsalis) is alternately considered the only other species in Chrysemys, or another subspecies of C. picta.

Chrysemys picta

MH Herpetology · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
painted turtlePBDB
Sits inside
ChrysemysPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Emydidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Emydidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Emydidae

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 16.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 12 occurrencesPleistocene17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.5–9.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.0–8.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.4–7.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.8–7.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.2–5.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.6–5.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.0–4.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.5–3.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.9–3.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.4–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.7–1.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.1–560 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence560 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences12.5 Mya11.7 ka16.8 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Chrysemys picta on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°W

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The named rock units Chrysemys picta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chrysemys picta and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Chrysemys picta and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

540 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Chrysemys picta, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 12 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Chrysemys picta

Credit
MH Herpetology
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chrysemys picta was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itChrysemys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schneider 1783)