Glyptemys insculpta

The wood turtle is a species of land turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is native to northeastern North America. The genus Glyptemys contains only one other species of turtle: the bog turtle. The wood turtle reaches a straight carapace length of 14 to 20 centimeters, its defining characteristic being the pyramidal shape of the scutes on its upper shell. Morphologically, it is similar to the bog turtle, spotted turtle, and Blanding's turtle. The wood turtle exists in a broad geographic range extending from Nova Scotia in the north to Minnesota in the west and Virginia in the south. In the past, it was forced south by encroaching glaciers: skeletal remains have been found as far south as Georgia.

Glyptemys insculpta

Ltshears · Public Domain · 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
wood turtlePBDB
Sits inside
GlyptemysPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Emydidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Emydidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Emydidae

Time the record covers

At least 81 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences210 ka – 129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

4 occurrences of Glyptemys insculpta 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

4 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.

Glyptemys insculpta and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Glyptemys insculpta and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

158 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Glyptemys insculpta, 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

4 references

Each of the 4 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 content2

Picture of Glyptemys insculpta

Credit
Ltshears
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Glyptemys insculpta · YPM:VZ:YPM HERR 005947

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itGlyptemys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Le Conte 1830)