Apalone mutica, the smooth softshell turtle, is a member of Trionychidae within Cryptodira. There are four extant species of Apalone (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Bonin et al., 2006). Relationships among members of Trionychidae, and taxonomy within the clade, are still poorly understood (e.g., Meylan, 1987; Engstrom et al., 2004). Trionychidae has an extensive fossil record dating from the Cretaceous (Meylan, 1987). Long thought to be the sister-group to Kinosternidae (e.g., Gaffney, 1975; Gaffney and Meylan, 1988), the relationship of this taxon to other turtles has recently been called into question on the basis of both molecular and morphological features (e.g., Shafffer et al., 1997; Joyce, 2007).
Apalone mutica is distinguished by its flat, smooth, skin-covered carapace that lacks horny scutes. The skull is elongate and distinctly emarginate, and a distinct tubular snout is present. Bones of the carapace are strongly pitted and the preneural is lacking (Ernst and Barbour, 1989). Members of Trionychidae, including A. mutica, exhibit a highly derived cranial arterial circulation that has implications for turtle phylogeny (e.g., Albrecht, 1967; Jamniczky and Russell, in press). The plastron is highly reduced and exhibits large callosities. The digits are webbed and long claws are present on the forelimbs of males and hindlimbs of females. Males may reach 18 cm, while females may reach 36 cm (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Bonin et al., 2006). Apalone mutica is orange-brown to olive dorsally, with dark patches and often a lighter marginal band on the carapace, and white or gray ventrally. A light stripe with black borders extends through the eye to the neck (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Bonin et al., 2006)
Apalone mutica is found in moderate- to fast-flowing fresh water, and occasionally in lakes and bogs, in the central United States from Ohio, Minnesota and South Dakota to Texas and New Mexico (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Bonin et al., 2006). It is carnivorous and both an active and ambush predator of fish, amphibians, and aquatic invertebrates. Females lay two or three clutches per year, each consisting of three to 33 eggs (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Bonin et al., 2006).
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Apalone mutica page on The Illinois Natural History Survey