Hi All,
I am Field Guide Student studying through WildlifeCampus. Although I enjoy all components of the study I am currently busy with the really fun part, yes you guessed it: Reptiles.
For the last month I have been hard at work on chelonians and I hope to be finishing with the component next week. There is however still a part of chelonians that I just cannot master; How to differentiate between a Marsh Terrapin and Hinged Terrapin. Both have 5 vertebral scutes and four pairs of coastal scutes and 11 marginal scutes on each side. Both lack a nuchal scute. I thought patterns on the head may be an ID point yet it seems some individual Marsh Terrapins has patterning on the head very similar to some of the Hinged Terrapins. Johan Marais suggests looking at the profile of the carapace and yes the Hinged Terrapin has a bit more of a dome shape to it's carapace but I would like something more definitive.
Is there something that I have perhaps overlooked, any advice would be appreciated.
Regards
Stefan