Texas Tortoise vs. Ornate Box Turtle

No other tortoise lives in Texas; the Ornate Box Turtle is the land turtle most often taken for one in the brush country. A: Yellow-orange centres on dark plates (fading with age) in the Texas Tortoise; bold yellow lines fanning out from the centre of each plate in the Ornate Box Turtle. B: No hinge: one solid bottom shell that cannot close in the Texas Tortoise; a hinge across the bottom shell: it closes up tight in the Ornate Box Turtle. The Texas Tortoise has thick, column-like hind legs and flat, scaly front legs for digging. Both are protected or declining in Texas: leave them where they are.

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

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