Sternotherus

Sternotherus is a genus of turtles in the family Kinosternidae including six species commonly known as musk turtles. The genus is endemic to North America, occurring in the eastern third of the US and southeast Ontario, Canada. Musk glands positioned near the bridge of the shell can produce foul smelling secretions when the turtles are threatened, although gentle handling does not normally provoke a response. Sternotherus are moderately small turtles, with the largest species in the genus, the razor-backed musk turtle, attaining a maximum of 17.6 cm. in shell length. The carapace is characteristically oval and domed, with most species having one or three keels on the back which may become smoother and obscure with age in some species. Musk turtles are generally drab in color, mostly black, gray, brown, olive, or ocher, which aid in camouflaging them in their natural habitats. The head is relatively large and stout, marked with spots, streaks, or strips. The plastron has only 10 or 11 scutes, as opposed to 12, a more common condition in North American turtles. The tail is short, with males having a horny claw like tip.

Sternotherus

User:Dawson · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
musk turtlePBDB
Sits inside
KinosterninaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Cryptodira

Time the record covers

At least 9.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 5 of 19 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 19 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 10 of 19 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 19 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.1–8.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.7–8.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.1–5.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.6–5.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.2–4.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.7–1.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.3–867 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence433 ka–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences9.4 Mya11.7 ka13 Mya0 Mya

19 occurrences of Sternotherus 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

19 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

4 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°W

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The named rock units Sternotherus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sternotherus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sternotherus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

492 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Sternotherus, 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

15 references

Each of the 19 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. 3 further references are not listed. 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 Sternotherus

Credit
User:Dawson
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itKinosterninae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1825