Stinkpot Turtle or The Common Musk Sternotherus odoratus By: Johnny Scientific Classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Testudines Family: Kinosternidae Genus: Sternotherus Species: odoratus

Natural History

The natural history section is about how an animal has evolved. Also it is simply the history of an animal.

A lot of people mix up turtle, tortoise, and terrapin. A turtle is sometimes but not always an animal that lives in the water. Tortoises live on land. The word terrapin comes from the Native Americans. It means turtle. These turtles are small and live in semi-salty water.

The common musk is another name for the stinkpot turtle. The common musk was first an animal 220 to 290 million years ago.

Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. It has been inhabited by living things for about 3.5 million of those . Even though reptiles have been around longer than birds and mammals, there are now more birds and mammals than reptiles.

Reptiles appeared 300 million years ago. Did you know that reptiles were the first amphibians? Ancient turtles looked the same as turtles today.

Turtles are one of the only reptiles today with a shell. Also did you know that ancient turtles could not retract their necks? Turtles are the longest living vertebrate. A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone. The stinkpot is a cold-blooded animal which means that the animal’s body temperature changes according to the temperature around it.

Habitat

The habitat section will tell you about where my animal lives. The stinkpot hardly ever leaves the water. Water to turtles is like air to Humans. The stinkpot is usually found in different habitats such as ponds, lakes, swamps, ditches, and rivers. They usually prefer to be in shallow lakes, swamps, and ponds. They are not found in salty water. They are omnivorous animals so they like to live in places with a lot of vegetation and they also like to live in places where there is a lot of diversity of animals.

The population of stinkpots in Maine is getting very slim because of the pollution from motorboats and other human recreational activities. When they are moving they leave a trail of gas. This gas can kill the animals. People think swamps are trashy places so they will just throw their trash. They mainly think this because they are ugly and muddy. It might not be as nice as a beach but many animals do live in this environment. This is a very valuable environment to many animals because even if they don't live there they have prey that live there.

The expansion of the Maine Turnpike has killed a lot of animals. Every day I would see many animals getting killed. They would get killed because the people were invading their habitat to make room for these roads. The turtles would try and escape from this tragedy and in the result get run over. This too has tributed to its decline.

Present Status

Endangered in Maine.

Physical Description

The physical description is what something looks like. Whether it is a dresser or a mouse it is what something looks like.

The stinkpot got its name because when it is in trouble because a predator is after it it will release a horrible stench. This is also how it got its other common name the common musk, because the stench that it releases can also be known as a musk.

The stinkpot turtle has a shell that has a big dome in it. The shell is pretty long and oval shaped. The shell is black or brown and it has a little bit of yellow in it. The stinkpot's skin color under its shell is dark gray or olive gray. The stinkpot has two light colored stripes that extend from the top of the eye to the nose, to the neck. Male stinkpots have a much longer and fatter tail than females.

Stinkpot turtles don’t have teeth. Instead they have sharp jaws. They use these jaws to chew food and they have been known to bite, but not too often. They are also known to have rather large heads.

My animal is a vertebrate, which means that it has a backbone. That would mean that it is in the Phylum Chordata. Stinkpots are small turtles. They are only known to grow up to six inches in length.

Diet and feeding Habits

The diet and feeding habits section is about what an animal eats on a regular basis.

The stinkpot is not as important as other animals in the food chain. The reason for this is because it is a major predator but it is not a very major prey. An animal that is a big part of the food chain might be a bird. Because it eats a lot of bugs, but then it gets eaten by animals like wolves. Another name for that is its diet. The stinkpot will eat mainly 50% plants and 50% animals. This means that it is a omnivore.  They will eat things like water plants, small fresh water clams, snails and insects. After the sun sets the young adults will search the bottom of a marshy area with their necks extended. Usually they will check between large rocks.

Causes of Endangerment

The causes of endangerment section is about the reasons an animal is endangered. The stinkpot was going to be extinct if it wasn’t for people today. But thanks for certain people today it is only endangered. Hopefully in the future it will become a species of concern. The growth of the population of people has had a big affect. The reason is because when people are born there need to be more houses to live in and these houses are sometimes built on where a turtle would live.

When people drive their motorboats and jet skis, the boats leave a trail of gas behind them. This gas can kill a lot of animals including turtles. Even if the stinkpot is not directly affected by this trail it can go through the water cycle and eventually get into their habitat.

Fishing will also mess up turtles. When people go fishing they usually fish in places where there is good fishing (a turtle’s habitat). When a turtle sees a piece of bait their natural instinct is to eat it, so they do. When they eat the bait they swallow the hook. When they swallow this hook they get it stuck down their throat. When the fisherman pulls up the hook expecting a fish and they get a turtle they would proably cut the line because either they are scared of the turtle or they don't know how to get it off.

The power plants are getting better these days but they still aren't great. They allow waste to escape into a river and that will kill my animal and its habitat.

Urban sprawl is huge to the death of many animals today. Urban sprawl is when they build one or two buildings and they keep on expanding and expanding. By doing this they kill a lot of animals’ habitats and sometimes they have to clear-cut forests.

For example in the early 1970’s the Maine Mall was a marshy forest. Then one day a man came along looking to make some money. That man did not care about the environment. Back then where the mall is now there was a marshy swamp. The original plan was to just have one or two stores and a small parking lot. This killed some animals, including the stinkpot.

Over the next few years they just kept on expanding and expanding until they got a mall. They are even expanding today, and this is urban sprawl. This has overall killed a lot of animals. Now that they have done so much urban sprawl there are fewer forests and animals. So when you are shopping at the mall or doing any of the activities above, such as fishing, please think about this.

Personal Essay

How does diversity strengthen an ecosystem?

The question above basically means how does more of a choice of food make a difference in an area with organisms that interact in a non-living environment.

Diversity can affect an ecosystem in a major way. It can affect everything in an ecosystem. If an animal like my animal gets endangered and scientists have to raise it in captivity, not only would there be no turtles to eat the insects, but it would also take away turtles that other animals like to eat.

No Diversity!

If there was no diversity then you could envision a big circle and animals on the line of that circle. If one animal gets extinct in this circle then it will affect the whole thing. Like if there is one type of worm but there are two birds that eat that type of worm, if that worm got endangered by the birds eating eating too many of them or by habitat destruction, then the birds would have to starve.  If this kept going on then eventually all of the animals in the ecosystem would die, because their prey would die.

Or if plague went around on a certain animal (another animals’ prey), then it would spread rapidly. The reason for this is because if the animal such as a worm got the plague, then the birds would go about their everyday life and eat the worms and get the plague also. If the birds got the plague then the predators that eat the birds would get the plague as well. This would keep going on until all of the animals get the plague and the food chain would die out.

Diversity

When there is diversity in an ecosystem, then there would still be a food chain but it would have numbers of animals available instead of single animals. So all of these animals would be a certain animal’s prey. Instead of just one prey there would be many. This allows the animals to eat different plants or organisms instead of just one organism so if one thing gets endangered then it will still affect the ecosystem but not as bad. So if an organism dies, it will just lower the population of prey for a certain animal but it will not threaten its future.

So just think if there was no diversity then the ecosystem would get messed up and all of the animals would die. Then that would mess up our food supply and we might die as well.

When you were reading this perhaps you made a connection between this and us human beings. The reason for this is because us humans are animals too. So next time you are eating some ever-so-precious food or are at the supermarket, please think about this article.

Bibliography

1. “The Stinkpot Turtle”. World Book Encyclopedia. 1990.

2. The Virginia Fish and Wildlife Information Service. 3/13/03. vafwis.org/BOVA/books/030052.htm. (4/10/03.)

3. Watkins, Patrica et al. Life Science. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1989.

4. The Stinkpot Turtle. www.iclark.edu/~clifton/landverts/outlines/bio211lect4.htm. (4/10/03)

5. Common Musk Turtle description. http://www.turtletopia.com/care/musk/muskdesc.shtml. (4/10/03)

6. Stinkpot Turtle. http://www.americazoo.com/goto/index/reptiles/92.htm. (4/10/03.)

7. Stinkpot Turtle. http://www.glfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/landscape/turt_e.html. (4/10/03.)

8.Tyning, Thomas. Amphibians and Reptiles. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1990.

9. Comstock, Scott. Personal interview/ conversation. 3-30-03.

10.Wolfe, Ann-Marie. Personal interview/ conversation. 4-10-03.