I once met a Painted Turtle from Estaire,
he was male and without so much as a care.
When plucked from the muck,
he said, "oh shucks"
and recoiled inside his shell flare.
"What are those carapacial projections?" I exclaimed.
"They are for bashing mates and rivals," he would say.
"And those tomiodonts too?"
"I was 26 when they grew"
The enigmatic morphology of a male Painted Turtle.
Inspired by recent research from the long-term turtle study at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station, Algonquin Provincial Park:
Hawkshaw*, D., Moldowan*, P.D., Brooks, R.J., and Litzgus, J.D, and Rollinson, N. 2019. Discovery and description of a novel sexual weapon in the world’s most widely-studied freshwater turtle. Evolutionary Ecology 33(6): 889–900. *equal contributions
Other relevant reading:
Moldowan, P.D., Brooks, R.J., and Litzgus, J.D. 2020. Demographics of injuries indicate sexual coercion in a population of Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta). Canadian Journal of Zoology. 98(4): 269–278.
Moldowan, P.D., Brooks, R.J., and Litzgus, J.D. 2016. Quantification of cranial and tomiodont dimorphism in Testudines using the Midland Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata. Zoomorphology 135(4): 499-510.
Moldowan, P.D., Brooks, R.J., and Litzgus, J.D. 2016. Turtles with “teeth”: beak morphology of Testudines with a focus on the tomiodonts of Painted Turtles (Chrysemys spp.). Zoomorphology 135(1): 121-135.