Alligator Snapping Turtle vs. Common Snapping Turtle

The owner's pair. Both are big snapping turtles of rivers, oxbows and reservoirs in eastern Oklahoma and the Mississippi valley (records share 87 one-degree squares); the Common Snapper is far commoner and often seen crossing roads. A: Three tall, saw-toothed ridges of knobs down the shell, kept for life in the Alligator Snapping Turtle; three low ridges that wear smooth in adults in the Common Snapping Turtle. B: On the sides of the head, ringed by fleshy points; a massive, sharply hooked beak in the Alligator Snapping Turtle; set high on the head, looking up and forward; a smaller beak in the Common Snapping Turtle. C: A pink, worm-like lure on the tongue in the Alligator Snapping Turtle; no lure on the tongue in the Common Snapping Turtle. The Alligator Snapper also has an extra row of small plates between the side plates and the edge of the shell (the Common has none), and rarely leaves the water. Alligator Snappers are protected in Oklahoma. Both bite hard: keep clear of the head.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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