{{Short description|Species of turtle}} {{Speciesbox | image = Kinosternon flavescens Figure 5 (cropped).jpg | image_caption = In the [[Chihuahuan Desert]], Texas | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=iucn>{{cite iucn |author=Iverson, J.B. |year=2025 |title=''Kinosternon flavescens'' |volume=2025 |article-number=e.T163421A161721376 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2025-1.RLTS.T163421A161721376.en |access-date=2 May 2025}}</ref> | genus = Kinosternon | species = flavescens | authority = ([[Louis Agassiz|Agassiz]], 1857) | synonyms = {{collapsible list|bullets = true|title=<small>List</small> |''Cinosternon flavescens'' <br />{{small|Agassiz, 1857}} |''Platythyra flavescens'' <br />{{small|— Agassiz, 1857}} |''Cinosternum flavescens'' <br />{{small|— Agassiz, 1857}} |''Kinosternum flavescens'' <br />{{small|— [[Edward Drinker Cope|Cope]], 1892}} |''Kinosternon flavescens'' <br />{{small|— Stone, 1903}} |''Kinosternon flavescens flavescens'' <br />{{small|— [[Norman Edouard Hartweg|Hartweg]], 1938}} |''Kinosternon flavescens spooneri'' <br />{{small|P.W. Smith, 1951}} |''Platythyra flavenscens'' [sic] <br />{{small|Raun & Gehlbach, 1972}} <br />''([[ex errore]])'' |''Kinosternon spooneri'' <br />{{small|— [[Joseph T. Collins|Collins]], 1991}} }} | synonyms_ref = <ref name="Fritz 2007">{{Cite journal | journal = Vertebrate Zoology | title = Checklist of Chelonians of the World | date = 2007 | author = Fritz, Uwe | author2 = Havaš, Peter | volume = 57 | issue = 2 | page = 252 | doi = 10.3897/vz.57.e30895 | doi-access = free | issn = 1864-5755 | url = http://www.cnah.org/pdf_files/851.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110501060224/http://www.cnah.org/pdf_files/851.pdf | archive-date = 1 May 2011 | access-date = 29 May 2012 | url-status = live }}</ref> }}
The '''yellow mud turtle''' ('''''Kinosternon flavescens'''''),<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://tucsonherpsociety.org/inhabitants/yellow-mud-turtle/|title=Yellow Mud Turtle - Tucson Herpetological Society|work=Tucson Herpetological Society|access-date=2018-10-25|language=en-US}}</ref> also commonly known as the '''yellow-necked mud turtle''',<ref>Zim & Smith (1956), p. 23.</ref> is a [[species]] of [[mud turtle]] in the [[Family (taxonomy)|family]] [[Kinosternidae]]. The species is [[Endemism|endemic]] to the [[Central United States]] and [[Mexico]].
==Distribution== *Northeastern Mexico: [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]], [[Coahuila]], [[Nuevo León]], and [[Tamaulipas]]. *Midwestern and [[Southwestern United States]]: [[Arizona]], [[Colorado]], [[Illinois]], [[Iowa]], [[Kansas]], [[Missouri]], [[Nebraska]], [[New Mexico]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Texas]].
Its current presence is uncertain in [[Veracruz]] (Mexico) and [[Arkansas]] (United States).{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
==Description== The yellow mud turtle is a small, olive-colored turtle. Both the common name, yellow mud turtle, and the [[Specific name (zoology)|specific name]], ''flavescens'' (Latin: yellow), refer to the yellow-colored areas on the throat, head, and sides of the neck. The bottom shell ([[plastron]]) is yellow to brown with two hinges, allowing the turtle to close each end separately. The male's tail has a blunt spine on the end, but the female's tail does not.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}<gallery mode="packed" heights="130"> File:Kinosternon flavescens 1.jpg File:Kinosternon flavescens 129768931.jpg|Texas File:Kinosternon flavescens 421538713.jpg|Carapace, Texas File:Kinosternon flavescens 325853229 (cropped).jpg|Plastron, Texas </gallery>
==Lifespan== The yellow mud turtle can live for more than 40 years.<ref>{{cite iucn |author=van Dijk, P.P. |year=2011 |errata=2016 |title=''Kinosternon flavescens'' |volume=2011 |article-number=e.T163421A97380845 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS.T163421A5604699.en |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref>
==Diet== Yellow mud turtles are [[Omnivore|omnivorous]]. Their diet includes worms, [[crayfish]], [[frogs]], [[snail]]s, [[fish]], [[fairy shrimp]], [[slug]]s, [[leech]]es, [[tadpole]]s, and other aquatic insects and [[invertebrate]]s. They also eat vegetation and dead and decaying matter.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
Yellow mud turtles forage on land and water for food. In early spring their main diet is fairy shrimp they find in the shallows of their ponds. While they are burrowing, they will eat earthworms or grubs they encounter. Some studies show these turtles will eat earthworms that pass in front of them while hibernating. They also consume fish and other aquatic organisms.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
== Behaviour == This species spends most of the year estivating underground, becoming active again when ponds refill from the summer monsoon season. If the amount of rain in a given year is inadequate, this species will remain underground until there is enough rain, and may remain underground for up to 24 months.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iverson |first=John B. |date=September 1989 |title=The Arizona Mud Turtle, ''Kinosternon flavescens'' arizonense (Kinosternidae), in Arizona and Sonora |journal=The Southwestern Naturalist |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=356–368 |doi=10.2307/3672164|jstor=3672164 |bibcode=1989SWNat..34..356I }}</ref>
==Reproduction== [[File:Kinosternon flavescens 401635255.jpg|thumb|Hatchling, Texas]] Most female aquatic turtles excavate a nest in the soil near a water source, deposit their eggs and leave, but yellow mud turtles exhibit a pattern of parental care. They are the only turtle that has been observed that stays with the eggs for any period of time. The female lays a [[clutch (eggs)|clutch]] of 1-9 eggs<ref name="rna">{{Cite book | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | isbn = 978-1-4053-5793-7 | author1 = O'Shea, Mark | author1-link = Mark O'Shea (herpetologist) |author2 = Halliday, Tim | title = Reptiles and Amphibians | location = London | year = 2010 | page = 46 }}</ref> and stays with the eggs for a period of time of a few hours up to 38 days. It is believed that the female stays to keep the predators away from the eggs. It was also observed that the females would urinate on their nests in dry years. This is believed to aid in the hatch success rate of the eggs in dry years.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
It is believed that in their natural habitat that spring rains induce the turtles to begin nesting. The eggs hatch in the fall and some hatchlings leave the nest and spend the winter in aquatic habitats, but most of the hatchlings burrow below the nest and wait until spring to emerge and then move to the water. This is believed to aid in survival rates of the hatchlings, because some water bodies freeze solid during the winter. Another benefit of waiting to emerge in the spring is that hatchlings enter an environment of increasing resources, such as heat, light, and food.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
==Predation== Yellow mud turtles have few natural predators as adults. As eggs and young they are preyed upon by [[striped skunk]]s, [[raccoon]]s, other turtles, water snakes ([[Nerodia]]), and [[Actinopterygii|large predatory fish]].<ref>{{cite web|title=''Kinosternon flavescens'' (Yellow Mud Turtle)|website= Animal Diversity Web |url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Kinosternon_flavescens/}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *[[Louis Agassiz|Agassiz L]] (1857). ''Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. Vol. I.'' Boston: Little, Brown and Company. li + 452 pp. (''Cinosternon flavescens'', new species, p. 260). *[[John L. Behler|Behler JL]], King FW (1979). ''The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 743 pp. {{ISBN|0-394-50824-6}}. (''Kinosternon flavescens'', pp. 439–440 + Plate 313). *Berry JF, Berry CM (1984). "A re-analysis of geographic variation and systematics in the yellow mud turtle, ''Kinosternon flavescens'' (Agassiz)". ''Annals of the [[Carnegie Museum of Natural History|Carnegie Museum]]'' '''53''' (7): 185-206. *[[Roger Conant (herpetologist)|Conant R]] (1975). ''A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. xviii + 429 pp. + Plates 1-48. {{ISBN|0-395-19979-4}} (hardcover), {{ISBN|0-395-19977-8}} (paperback). (''Kinosternon flavescens'', pp. 44–46, Figures 6-7 + Plate 4 + Map 10). *[[Hobart Muir Smith|Smith HM]], Brodie ED Jr (1982). ''Reptiles of North America: A Guide to Field Identification''. New York: Golden Press. 240 pp. {{ISBN|0-307-13666-3}}. (''Kinosternon flavescens'', pp. 26–27). *[[Robert C. Stebbins|Stebbins RC]] (2003). ''A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Third Edition''. The Peterson Field Guide Series ®. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. xiii + 533 pp. {{ISBN|978-0-395-98272-3}}. (''Kinosternon flavescens'', pp. 247–248 + Plate 20 + Map 67). *[[Herbert S. Zim|Zim HS]], Smith HM (1956). ''Reptiles and Amphibians: A Guide to Familiar American Species: A Golden Nature Guide''. New York: Simon and Schuster. 160 pp. (''Kinosternon flavescens'', pp. 23, 155).
==External links== {{Commons category|Kinosternon flavescens}} {{Wikispecies-inline|''Kinosternon flavescens''}} *[https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/yellow-mud-turtle Yellow Mud Turtle], Missouri Department of Conservation *[https://www.iowaherps.com/species/kinosternon_flavescens Yellow Mud Turtle], Reptiles and Amphibians of Iowa *[http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/collections/herps/data/ilspecies/ki_flavesc/ Yellow Mud Turtle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920025418/http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/collections/herps/data/ilspecies/ki_flavesc |date=2016-09-20 }}, Illinois Natural History Survey
{{Kinosternidae}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q1077041}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Kinosternon]] [[Category:Reptiles of Mexico]] [[Category:Reptiles of the United States]] [[Category:Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States)]] [[Category:Fauna of the Southwestern United States]] [[Category:Reptiles described in 1857]]