Giant Florida Alligator Snapping Turtles
The florida fish and wildlife commission just caught some truly massive turtles.
Giant florida alligator snapping turtles. They are true survivors with a fearsome appearance gaping sharp jaws and a real attitude problem. Ricky conner s alligator snapping turtle s shell measured 21 inches front to back and appeared very worn from age. Deep in an east texas swamp a 300 pound creature ambushes in large alligator from underneath. One weighed at the shedd aquarium in chicago was a 16 year resident giant alligator snapper weighing 113 kg 249 lb sent to the tennessee aquarium as part of a breeding loan in 1999 where it subsequently died.
Another weighing 107 kg 236 lb was. E veryone agrees that the suwannee species is distinct. The massive creature was a suwanee alligator snapping turtle macrochelys suwanniensis which is a new species of snapping turtle that biologists first discovered in 2014. Suwannee alligator snapping turtles also known as macrochelys suwanniensis are considered a species of special concern and they re also a newly named species the agency helped discover in.
The suwannee alligator snapping turtle has been isolated for at least 5 5 million years during which time it has undergone sufficient evolutionary changes to differentiate it from other alligator snapping turtles. These ancient beasts probably laughed as they watched the dinosaurs come and go from this planet. With a beaklike jaw spiked shell and scaly thick tail it s been dubbed the dinosaur of the turtle world. Wildlife conservationists in florida stumbled across an enormous species of turtle that looks like it crawled out of a monster movie.
The alligator snapping turtle is an incredible predator. According to a florida fish and wildlife conservation commission fwc facebook post the 45kg male suwannee alligator snapping turtle was found along with another 29kg male and a 20kg female in. What swamp creature could bully an 8 foot alligator. Biologists with the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission captured three suwannee alligator snapping turtles last week including one that weighed 100 pounds.
Three massive snapping turtles were found in florida with one weighing 100 pounds. These animals are known to easily reach 100 years of age.
