Tara80
ACR Breeder # 787
I'd like to start a thread about animals that YOU think are really unusual, awesome or unique.
There are SO MANY cool animals out there! I'm still learning about new animals that I didn't even realize existed.
We're even discovering new animals all of the time.
Starting off, I'd like to post about the Mata Mata turtle, which I saw on Facebook earlier.
This thing looks so happy!~
The Mata Mata is a large sedentary turtle that has a large triangular flattened head characterized with many tubercles and flaps of skin and a "horn" on its long and tubular snout. There are three barbels on the chin and four additional filamentous barbels at the upper jaw, which is neither hooked nor notched.
The mata mata's brown or black oblong carapace can measure up to 45 cm (18 in) at adult age. The full adult weight is 15 kg (33 lb).
The mata mata's plastron is reduced, narrowed, hingeless, shortened towards the front, and deeply notched at the rear with narrow bridges. These may be meant to allow the turtle to resemble a piece of bark, camouflaging it from possible predators. The plastron and bridges are cream to yellow or brown.
The head, neck, tail, and limbs are grayish brown on adults. The neck is longer than the vertebra under its carapace and is fringed with small skin flaps along both sides. Hatchlings show a pink to reddish tinge in the underside edge of their carapace and plastron that gradually disappear as they grow.
Each forefoot has five webbed claws. Males have concave plastrons and longer, thicker tails than females.
The mata mata inhabits slow moving, blackwater streams, stagnant pools, marshes, and swamps ranging into northern Bolivia, eastern Peru, Ecuador, eastern Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern and central Brazil. The mata mata is strictly an aquatic species but it prefers standing in shallow water where its snout can reach the surface to breathe.
There are SO MANY cool animals out there! I'm still learning about new animals that I didn't even realize existed.
We're even discovering new animals all of the time.
Starting off, I'd like to post about the Mata Mata turtle, which I saw on Facebook earlier.
This thing looks so happy!~
The Mata Mata is a large sedentary turtle that has a large triangular flattened head characterized with many tubercles and flaps of skin and a "horn" on its long and tubular snout. There are three barbels on the chin and four additional filamentous barbels at the upper jaw, which is neither hooked nor notched.
The mata mata's brown or black oblong carapace can measure up to 45 cm (18 in) at adult age. The full adult weight is 15 kg (33 lb).
The mata mata's plastron is reduced, narrowed, hingeless, shortened towards the front, and deeply notched at the rear with narrow bridges. These may be meant to allow the turtle to resemble a piece of bark, camouflaging it from possible predators. The plastron and bridges are cream to yellow or brown.
The head, neck, tail, and limbs are grayish brown on adults. The neck is longer than the vertebra under its carapace and is fringed with small skin flaps along both sides. Hatchlings show a pink to reddish tinge in the underside edge of their carapace and plastron that gradually disappear as they grow.
Each forefoot has five webbed claws. Males have concave plastrons and longer, thicker tails than females.
The mata mata inhabits slow moving, blackwater streams, stagnant pools, marshes, and swamps ranging into northern Bolivia, eastern Peru, Ecuador, eastern Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern and central Brazil. The mata mata is strictly an aquatic species but it prefers standing in shallow water where its snout can reach the surface to breathe.
