Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata AgassizLegler, John M.
Science
Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata Agassiz
Legler, John M.
Ornate box turtle
The extent to which serious injury incapacitates a turtle is not
known. Surely open wounds are susceptible to infection and to various
kinds of secondary injury; normal activity is probably interrupted by
a period of quiescence, at least in the period of initial healing.
An injured female had a hole, slightly more than one inch in diameter,
in the right side of the carapace at the level of the second lateral
lamina. A tight, thin membrane stretched between the broken edges of
the opening; this membrane contained no bone and was covered
externally by scar tissue. It was obvious that this turtle had
recovered, at least in part, from a serious injury (inflicted probably
by a piece of heavy farm machinery).
Minor chips, scratches, and abrasions on the shell result from a
variety of sources, some of them mentioned above. Small rounded pits
in the bony shell (shell pitting) due to causes other than mechanical
injury, are found in nearly all kinds of turtles according to
Carpenter (1956), Hunt (1957), and my personal observation. In _T.
ornata_, however, the condition is less common than in the specimens
of _T. carolina_ described by Carpenter and in the remaining species
of _Terrapene_ that I have examined.
Carpenter (1956:86) came to no conclusion as to the cause of shell
pitting in _Terrapene carolina_ but suggested that a variety of
factors including parasitic fungi, parasitic invertebrates, and simple
shell erosion, might be responsible.
According to my own observations on turtles in the University of
Kansas collections, shell pits range in size and shape from shallow,
barely discernible depressions to deep borings; I suspect that shell
pitting for turtles in general has many causes, some of which may be
of more frequent occurrence in one species than in another.
Hunt (1957:20) presumably was referring to shell pitting by a more
suitable name when he wrote of, "... necrosis ... of mycotic origin."
Hunt (_loc. cit._) stated that "Of those cases which have been
recently examined, the author found all were due to the invasion of
Mucorales beneath the plates of the epidermal laminae. This disease is
of extremely common occurrence and has been found in all members of
the order but is seldom found in marine species. Mycosis more
frequently occurs on the plastron than on the carapace." Hunt
presented no evidence to support his statement regarding invasion of
the shell by Mucorales.
Evidence that injury to the soft parts of the body is also fairly
common is seen in the many _T. ornata_ with missing feet and legs.
Stumps resulting from amputations are covered with tough, calloused
skin and sometimes by horny tissue similar to that of the antebrachial
scales. Amputees are incapacitated only slightly in normal locomotion
if a functional stump remains; probably a cripple is somewhat
handicapped in other functions, such as burrowing, nest digging
(females), and copulation (males). Causes of amputation are discussed
in the section on predators.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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