u should infodump about turtles. as a treat. what is ur favorite turtle. the people want to know, tumblr user boxymikey. 🎤 - anon t
well i cant deny the will of the people!!! asking me to pick a favourite is like asking me to pick between my children 😭
if i'm to restrict myself to LIVING species (sorry to leviathanochelys and archelon) i think... i have to pick the bellinger river snapping turtle. they're a critically endangered species native to new south wales, and in 2015 a virus wiped out 90% of the species. there's a captive breeding program that is working to increase their numbers, but they're functionally extinct in the wild.
while they are omnivorous, their diet primarily consists of benthic macro-invertebrate communities. their preferred habitat is in the deeper pools of the bellinger river, and the species is capable of staying underwater for extensive periods of time due to their ability to breathe through their cloaca (aka, breathe through their butt).
like all native australian turtle species (barring sea turtles), the bellinger river snapping turtle is side-necked and aquatic in nature. all side-necked turtles are either aquatic or semi-aquatic, and they can be found in southern africa and madagascar, south america, australia, and a variety of islands in the indian ocean.
bellinger river snapping turtles fall under the family chelidae, which includes a variety of turtles from australia, new guinea, indonesia, and south america. one of its more unique looking species is the mata mata (which i've seen a post about floating around i think?). members of family chelidae (referred to as chelids) also have genetic sex determination, unlike most other turtles which have their sex determined by temperature.
also fun fact: leatherback sea turtles aren't the only species of turtle to be placed in a family where they are the only living genus. leatherbacks are a part of dermochelyidae, which it shares with several extinct genera. similarly, the family carettochelyidae contains several genera, but only one the pig-nosed turtle survives today, the family dermatemydidae has four genera, with the only extant one being the hickatee, and the big-headed turtle is the only species in its entire family, extant or extinct.
