This Odd-Looking Turtle Always Has a Smile on Its Face and Feeds in an Incredible Way
A unique-looking head structure. Image credit: Joachim S. Müller
Found in the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America, these turtles are carnivorous and nocturnal, preferring to hunt for small fish and aquatic invertebrates at night. But, despite their big shells, they can also become prey to even bigger carnivores, such as crocodiles.
And that’s where those ridges, lumps and flaps of skin that cover their body come into the picture. Although they might make them look ‘aesthetically challenged’ for humans, those skin formations actually have a number of important functions, one of them being is that you resemble decaying wood and swampy putrefaction in general – stuff that’s both relatively common and inedible in the river basins where the mata mata lives.
Found in the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America, these turtles are carnivorous and nocturnal, preferring to hunt for small fish and aquatic invertebrates at night. But, despite their big shells, they can also become prey to even bigger carnivores, such as crocodiles.
And that’s where those ridges, lumps and flaps of skin that cover their body come into the picture. Although they might make them look ‘aesthetically challenged’ for humans, those skin formations actually have a number of important functions, one of them being is that you resemble decaying wood and swampy putrefaction in general – stuff that’s both relatively common and inedible in the river basins where the mata mata lives.
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17 August 2023
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