Eastern Painted Turtle

Yesterday, at the recycling center, we spotted this Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta). It was in a very bad spot between a woven wire fence and a busy road, so we rescued it and brought it home to release in the lake behind our house. There are four subspecies of the Painted Turtle. This one is identified as the Eastern subspecies by the fact that the vertebral scutes (those plates on its upper shell that are aligned down the top of its shell) and the costal scutes (the large plates that are aligned along the side of its shell) meet in nearly straight lines across the width of its upper shell.

Underside of the Painted Turtle

The underside view shows the plain colored plastron (lower segment of the shell) and the bright red markings (suggestive of paint) on the marginal scutes of the upper shell.

Head of the Painted TutThe

The head view of a Painted Turtle shows that its upper jaw has a central notch flanked by two cusps or pseudoteeth.