Type of Shell: Hard & Flattened

Reproduction: 4-20 eggs per clutch, 2-3 clutches per year.

Painted Turtles are arguably the prettiest of all North American turtles. Their colorful plastrons resemble an white oak tree's left, its surrounded by the red background color.

Northern Painted Turtles' range consists of north central states and northwestern states, with a several isolated populations in in several western states. This species live in slow & non-moving waters, such as lakes, ponds & creeks. This species is a generalist along turtles species and survives well in human modified environments. In the northern parts of its range, they are often the first reptiles to come out of hibernation. Great numbers of them can be seen basking on half submerged logs during the first warms days of spring.

Adults are omnivorous, while the young primary eats animal matter. Their genus name, "Chrysemys," means golden turtle and the species name "picta," means painted.

There used to be a Eastern, Midland, Western & Southern subspecies of this species, but science has determined that there are no subspecies in painted turtles, but two distinct species. The Eastern (Chrysemys p. picta), Midland (Chrysemys picta marginata) & Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii) are now just classified with Northern Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta). The Southern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys dorsalis) was given full species status. With the loss of the Western subspecies, future young herpetologists will no longer able to ponder who was "bellii." We honor him here: Thomas Bell wrote "A Monograph of the Testudinata," which summarizes all of the world's turtles, living and extinct in 1832.

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