Yangtze river turtle

[Yvonne G]

Did anyone watch the show on PBS last night about very rare animals? It was a National Geographic photographer who travels the world to get photos of very rare animals before they go extinct. He did a segment about the Yangtze softshell turtle and it was quite impressive. Man oh man, what a turtle!!! Here's an article about it, and the pictures in the article are some that the guy took on his trip:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/05/yangtze-softshell-red-river-turtle-endangered/

 

[cdmay]

I missed the PBS show but I did read Peter Pritchard's book regarding these animals.
Agree---what a turtle! Very prehistoric looking and with a mysterious lifestyle to boot.
Thanks for the link.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

A whole book on the matter.

 

[Yvonne G]

I love how the carapace seems to drape around the rib cage. They say it's the largest fresh water turtle. . . but I was wondering about some of the snappers. Don't they get bigger than the softshell?

 

[cdmay]

I love how the carapace seems to drape around the rib cage. They say it's the largest fresh water turtle. . . but I was wondering about some of the snappers. Don't they get bigger than the softshell?

Good question. It appears that the giant soft-shelled turtle gets longer, but not necessarily heavier than alligator snappers.
But then again, I seem to remember that one or two of the Rafetus were genuinely gigantic.