Family: Kinosternidae, Musk and Mud Turtles view all from this family

Description 3 1/8-5 1/4" (8-13.5 cm). Carapace keeled (prominent in juveniles), with overlapping vertebral scutes; brown or orange, with dark-bordered seams; may be patterned with dark spots or radiating streaks. Plastron small, pink or yellow, with single indistinct hinge and single gular scute. Barbels on chin only. Head has dark spots or stripes. Male has enlarged, spine-tipped tail; tip of female's tail barely reaches edge of carapace.

Subspecies Loggerhead (S. m. minor), 3 dorsal keels, numerous spots on head; c. Georgia and se. Alabama to c. Florida.
Stripe-necked (S. m. peltifer), 1 dorsal keel, stripes on neck; sw. Virginia and e. Tennessee south to Gulf and Pearl River, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Breeding Lays 1-4 clutches of 2-3 elliptical, 1 1/8" (29 mm) eggs. 17 Loggerhead nests have been found in one 5' high pile of sand along a spring run. Brittle porcelainlike shells are translucent pink when deposited, turn opaque white as embryo development proceeds. Incubation takes 13-16 weeks.

Habitat Large spring runs, creeks, rivers, oxbows, swamps, and sinkhole ponds.

Range C. Georgia to c. Florida and panhandle, west to e. Mississippi and extreme e. Louisiana, north through e. Tennessee.

Discussion Highly aquatic, and frequently observed crawling along bottom among rocks, submerged logs, and vegetation. Juveniles feed primarily on insects, adults on snails and clams, which they crush with the wide surfaces of their jaws. Loggerheads are as pugnacious as Stinkpots; the young are capable of expelling musk even before they hatch.