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I thought i would share this. I got sent these photos to ID the turtle. Its wild caught.

Im going with its a western painted turtle going melanistic maybe. Its has that same appearance when res start to turn melanistic.

I thought this was pretty cool, never seen one like it.

Here is a normal Western Painted Turtle



Here is possiable melanistic western.

that is odd. never seen that before. its possible that isjust his pattern? but id say melanistic

Neat! His plastron sure looks like a western painted. Bet he's an old guy!

he does look pretty old! Ummmm.....can someone tell me the definition of melanistic

Looks like melanism to me too, though I've never seen it in painteds before.

Moose that just means that the pigmentation of the turtle is getting darker. As they get older they get darker.

"Melanism related to the process of adaptation is called adaptive. Most commonly, dark individuals become fitter to survive and reproduce in their environment as they are better camouflaged. This makes some species less conspicuous to predators[2] while others use it as a foraging advantage (for example during night hunting).[3] Typically adaptive melanism is heritable: A dominant gene (which is entirely or nearly entirely expressed in the phenotype) is responsible for the excessive amount of melanin.[4] Adaptive melanism has been shown to occur in a variety of animals, including mammals (squirrels, many felines, many canids), reptiles (coral snakes) and insects (peppered moth)."

Maybe the turtle is melanistic, but male terrapins are naturally known for being darker than the females, so this may also be a possibility?
You should let that turtle back into the wild, I'm sure he would rather be there! Good luck!

ShellbyRES16x wrote:Maybe the turtle is melanistic, but male terrapins are naturally known for being darker than the females, so this may also be a possibility?
You should let that turtle back into the wild, I'm sure he would rather be there! Good luck!

The person did release it back into the wild. He also says their are alot in this one pond that look like him.

those black dots make that turtle look even cooler. i like those pics too!