![soft shell turtle soft shell turtle](https://files.ontario.ca/mecp-sar-spiny-softshell.jpg)
Softshells are generally carnivores that primarily feed on the bottom especially liking crayfish, aquatic insects, and fish but also prey on mollusks, worms, isopods, amphibians, reptiles, carrion as well as a good amount of vegetation. Females get darker with age, but males stay the same color throughout their life.
![soft shell turtle soft shell turtle](https://www.reptilefact.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Apalone-Mutica.jpg)
The female’s carapace can grow to 20 inches while the males are about 16 inches. Males have a carapace that feels like sandpaper which is marked with small, dark spots and circles and the tail is thick and long with the vent well beyond the rear end of the carapace.įemales have a carapace that is not like sandpaper and which is mottled with blotches, but the tubercles are more prominent and the tail is rather short.
![soft shell turtle soft shell turtle](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/belly-common-softshell-turtle-asiatic-amyda-cartilaginea-isolated-white-background-159886150.jpg)
The feet have claws and are webbed for swimming. The snout is tubular and rather pig like with a ridge along the inner margin of each nostril and is upturned near the end which lets the turtle remain beneath the water surface with just the snout exposed to breath. There are no scutes, the scales found on the carapace and plastron of most turtles. Small conical tubercles or “spines” are present on the front edge of the carapace above the neck which account for its name. It has two yellow stripes with black borders along the sides of the neck. They are olive to gray or tan with black speckles and a yellow border on the carapace and a pale or yellowish plastron. The Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apalone Spinifera) has a very flat almost pancake like carapace with flexible edges that is covered with leathery skin.