A medium-size turtle with a moderately domed, gray, keeled carapace, with each scute possessing concentric grooves. The plastron is orange-brown, and may be vividly patterned. The body coloration is quite variable, ranging from uniform slate gray to cream with dark black speckles. There is a distinctive white area above and below the cusps of the jaw. Females are much larger than males.
Ten Facts about Northern Diamondback Terrapin
- Males grow to approximately 5 inches, while the females grow to an average of around 7.5 inches.
- The diamondback terrapin is found in a large range in the eastern and southern United States, from as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts to the southern tip of Florida and around the Gulf Coast to Texas.
- Adult diamondback terrapins mate in the early spring.
- Clutches of 8-12 eggs are laid in sand dunes in the early summer.
- Maturity in males is reached in 2-3 years at around 4.5 inches in length; it takes longer for females: 6-7 years at a length of around 6.75 inches.
- Diamondback terrapins live on a diet of mollusks, fiddler crabs, and occasionally small fish.
- They mostly founds in Coastal marshes, coves, tidal creeks, bays.
- Adult terrapins are often seen basking on mud flats.
- Terrapins have a long lifespan of about 25 to 40 years.
- The 1 to 1.25-inch hatchlings are patterned similar to the adults, but brighter.
