The Painted Turtle

Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii)

The physiology of hibernation among painted turtles: the midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata).

Midland painted turtles from Michigan were submerged at 3 degrees C in normoxic and anoxic water. In predive, and in turtles submerged for up to 150 days, plasma PO2, PCO2, pH, [Cl-], [Na+], [K+], total Mg, total Ca, lactate, glucose, and osmolality were measured; hematocrit and mass were determined, and plasma [HCO3-] was calculated. Anoxic turtles developed a severe metabolic acidosis, accumu...

Seasonal Temperature Variation in the Painted Turtle (chrysemys Picta)

We measured temperature variation in a free-ranging ectotherm by attaching microdataloggers to the carapaces of 34 painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) in a farm pond located in Davidson, NC. Water and mud temperatures (Tw) were simultaneously monitored. We successfully recorded external shell temperature (Ts) in 18 turtles from September 2001–April 2002 and 23 turtles from April 2002–October 2002...

Do Roads Reduce Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) Populations?

Road mortality is thought to be a leading cause of turtle population decline. However, empirical evidence of the direct negative effects of road mortality on turtle population abundance is lacking. The purpose of this study was to provide a strong test of the prediction that roads reduce turtle population abundance. While controlling for potentially confounding variables, we compared relative a...

Egg incubation and collection of painted turtle embryos.

This protocol describes how to incubate painted turtle eggs and collect embryos for gene expression analysis. The same basic protocol can be used to incubate eggs and collect embryos from other turtle species by modifying the incubation temperature to suit the particular developmental needs of each species.