Talk:Alligator snapping turtle/Archive 1

Previous version
The previous version dealt almost entirely with keeping the common snapping turtle as a pet, had no real discussion of the alligator snapping turtle, and was not written in encyclopedic style. I have replaced it with some basic information about the alligator snapping turtle, and tried to address the problems with keeping it as a pet. However, it could use some expansion by someone with more expertise in the biology of the species and its role in the larger ecology in which it is found. Leighkimmel 01:48, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Changes
I changed the phrase "and more" to "yet less" in comparing the aggressiveness of the Alligator Snapping Turtle to the Common American Snapping Turtle. Alligator Snapping Turtles are very shy and far less aggressive than the Common Snapping Turtle. I also added a note about the tongue appendage. DRAGB 18:57, 2 June, 2005 (UTC)

I deleted the more/less agressive part altogether. Original research is not part of Wikipedia. Please find a source before you reassert this claim. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.242.181.143 (talk) 02:35, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Distinguishing features
In the description section, I changed "a dorsal ridge..." to "three dorsal ridges" to further clarify. Though this is a rather minor morphological characteristic and would therefore be one of the last distinguishing characteristics from other turtles, there are a few other aquatic species that have a single dorsal ridge of scales. Fateddy 17:11, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

range
I don't know about other regions; but I live in the CSRA (Specifically, Augusta, Georgia), and we have an abundance of them, is there any reason the range does not include us?.Iamanadam (talk) 04:28, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

American snapping turtle
Isnt that one of the most commen nicknames for this animal? everywhere i see on national geographic & the history channel you got people left,right and center calling them that. ChesterTheWorm (talk) 22:08, 20 March 2009 (UTC) ChesterTheWorm

Ontario population citation
Can someone provide a citation of some sort to the paragraph about alligator snappers having a population in southern Ontario? I have never heard of this claim and can't find any more information about it on the internet. It's weird that most sources say Alligator snappers' northernmost range is (questionably) southern Iowa and Illinois, and here we have someone claiming there is an adult population in Canada. If no one can confirm this, I suggest this paragraph be deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.4.56.116 (talk) 04:48, 8 October, 2006 (UTC)

Two friends of mine, brother and sister, went hiking about a week ago (in southern Ontario) and they found a turtle by a river on the trail. Some wikipedia-ing later found out it was an alligator snapping turtle (the ridges on the back, the long tail, and the nose are all a dead giveaway. They saw 2, but took the smaller one, it's now living in their fish tank. Here are some pictures I took, my phone's camera isn't good, and the tank was kinda murky, so here's the best I got. http://imageshack.us/g/845/img00080.jpg/ Toxic Ninja (talk) 15:38, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The pictures show a hatchling Snapping Turtle not an Alligator Snapping Turtle. It is illegal to keep Snappers as pets in Ontario, especially if they are taken from the wild. They are also federally listed as a species of Special Concern under the Species At Risk Act. If this turtle has not been in contact with other pet turtles from which it could catch diseases (diseases potentially lethal to wild turtles have been known to spread through the captive turtle trade) then it should be released as soon as possible back to its place of capture. If it has been in contact with other turtles it should be given to the OMNR or a wildlife rehabilitation centre who should be able to figure out how to assess it to make sure that it can be safely released. If you like I can put you in touch with an expert in SW Ontario who would probably be willing to take it off their hands.Matt Keevil (talk) 00:03, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Category
Have removed 'Monotypic reptile genera' category from the article that was recently added. I know no reference to back up such a claim. Maybe overlooking the many extinct turtles out there? Regards, SunCreator (talk) 01:26, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Dirty Jobs
on Dirty Jobs they said an AST was 150 years old, because it was the same size as one who had Civil War-era musket shot in their bellies.. That's kinda poor evidence, couldn't they have just eaten some? And anyway, people do Civil War reenactment all the time.. presumably some of them use live ammo, right? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.21.221 (talk) 01:49, 11 July, 2007 (UTC)

Civil war shot was commonplace, and people obviously did not clean up battlefields of all loose shot. Firearms, of course, because the weapons were useful for decades even for hunting. It's hard to date shot of the time because it could be created later (and easily) for use in the weapons. It is far easier to date weapons than ammo.

Re-enactment? Re-enactors typically do not use live ammo. They might go down, but they expect to return to life after the re-enactment is over -- and live ammo is inconsistent with that.

I am not sure from the context whether the turtle had ingested the shot as if stones for its gizzard or whether the turtle had been shot. Lead shot is extremely durable, and one could never know whether the shot had been ingested two years ago or 150 years earlier. But even if the turtle had been shot and survived, it is not clear that one could date the shot. I suspect that Civil War-era weapons were in use long into the twentieth century. 150 years or 80 if the shot was lodged in the turtle? If in the gizzard, then did the turtle ingest 140-year-old shot ten years ago or 10-year-old shot 140 years ago? Or did it consume 60-year-old shot (made in 1912 to fit a Civil War firearm) forty years ago?Pbrower2a (talk) 03:57, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Superpredator?
Are these predators invulnerable to attack by animals in their range? Dogs are as deadly as any carnivores, and they are infamously-unfussy killers. But a full-grown alligator snapper would seem to be able to get away easily or deliver a nasty bite to a any dog, and I doubt that a dog could deliver the fatal neck bite or tear the animal to pieces. Bears or cougars? I would expect much the same. They are obviously too large as adults to be prey for raptor birds. Alligators, perhaps. Pbrower2a (talk) 04:13, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

New Species
2 new species have been described Macrochelys apalachicolae and Macrochelys suwanniensis Thomas et al. 2014. Considering the major article on the original species any thoughts on proceeding? The paper also deals with several fossil taxa.

Travis M. Thomas,Michael C. Granatosky, Jason R. Bourques, Kenneth L. Krysko,Paul E. Molers, Tony Gamble, Eric Suarez, Erin Leones, Kevin M. Enges & Joe Roman. 2014. Taxonomic assessment of Alligator Snapping Turtles (Chelydridae: Macrochelys), with the description of two new species from the southeastern United States. Zootaxa 3786 (2): 141–165.

Sorry you would need a Zootaxa subscription to download it. Anyone genuinely needs the paper I can send it. Cheers. Faendalimas talk 03:44, 12 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Someone published a paper. That doesn't mean that the whole scientific community has agreed to accept what it says as fact. We should wait until it is clear whether the general community agrees with that paper or not. —BarrelProof (talk) 01:59, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Fair point, but I think these will be accepted. However one of the reasons I flagged this here first was for those reasons. Faendalimas  talk 15:05, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
 * It should at least be mentioned.Capra walie (talk) 18:35, 18 April 2014 (UTC)
 * It is. See the last sentence of the "Description" section. —BarrelProof (talk) 19:19, 18 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Here's a news link to the species ID'ing. It also contains some great bits about their historical use as a turtle soup food source (which could be adapted to the article): http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140424102057.htm Cheers! StevePrutz (talk) 22:45, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Not the Largest Freshwater Turtle
Under Distribution and Habitat, the article incorrectly lists this turtle as being the largest freshwater species, which is not correct. The Yangtze Giant Softshell turtle is the largest, even according to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_giant_softshell_turtle. The largest recorded and verified individual of that species was even larger than the largest UNverified individual of Alligator Snapper. We should change this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.131.225.183 (talk) 19:30, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * According to, you have to qualify the alligator snapping turtle's record by specifying weight rather than length. Pinethicket (talk) 00:42, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
 * ok this is way out of date, the largest freshwater turtle by both length and weight is Rafetus swinhoei which weighs in at 220 lbs as against the Alligator snappers 170 lbs at best, it is also not the longest again this goes to Rafetus. However it is the largest freshwater turtle in North America. So I would suggest we reword this section completely regarding this. In fairness for a long time this was considered the largest species, the full size of Rafetus is only a relatively recent discovery. Faendalimas  talk 02:46, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

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Invasive Species
Does it make sense to list the escaped specimens under this title? In my opinion one cannot call something an invasive species unless it has bred sucessfully in wildlife outside its natural habitat. Furthermore there should be some signs that it could establish a stable population there. All cases are probably escaped single specimens and aren't invasive yet. --Ariser (talk) 06:21, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 March 2020 and 16 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): A.kelley216.

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Danger
after personally raising multiple alli snappers, and re-habbing and transporting adults, i feel that the danger was over rated and corrected that a bit.--uber —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.161.245.37 (talk) 19:18, 22 June, 2005 (UTC)

Basic Information
The article lacks basic information about weight, overall length, shell dimensions, size of mouth, etc. Jedwards05 10:03, 21 February, 2006 (UTC)

Female turtles
this article lacks info about female turtles and how to tell them apart —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.98.89.106 (talk) 00:37, 27 October, 2006 (UTC)