That's Not My Turtle...

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Something that always makes me cringe is when I see a tiny baby turtle being kept in a huge tank, with 2 ft (60 cm) deep water. Softshell turtles are the only North American turtle species that lack scutes and have soft, leathery shells. With hundreds of articles on everything pertaining to lizards, turtles, and snakes, our experienced team provides reliable and accurate content you can trust. Today, you’ve come to the right place to learn how to identify the United States’ fascinating testudines.

Unlike most dome-shelled tortoises, pancake tortoises carry their name after their flattened shells. Luckily, it’s easy to determine whether the testudine is a freshwater turtle, sea turtle, or tortoise.

Fortunately, with turtles and tortoises this problem can generally be solved quite easily, and often without the help of a vet.

This Live Science introduction to turtles includes details about their habitats, taxonomy, diet, offspring and other interesting facts. Each sturdy little book features aspects of the creature or object in question, with tactile cutouts on each page allowing small fingers to experience the various parts that don’t measure up. In this case, it’s the turtle’s flippers that are too scaly, the tail too rough, the eggs too smooth…until on the last page, the correct turtle is identified by its shiny tummy. Once you know what type of turtle it is, you have much of the information you need to help it to safety or provide appropriate accommodations.If you’re still having a hard time, try this sea turtle identification key from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologists. You can quickly identify spiny softshells by the row of spiny projections from the front edge of their carapace. I liked it but there was too much words and this is natgeo kids for kids to read and if I were a kid I wouldn't want to read it.