Learn About Big Headed Turtles
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Big-Headed Turtles as Pets
The home maintenance of the big-head or P. megacephalum commands consideration of their conventional ecological niche and the adjustments they have made to their environment. As stream-dwellers, Big-headed turtles ought to be maintained in an enclosure that permits access to both land and water.
The water area should not be too deep -
Big-headed turtles are poorly equipped for swimming, so there is a real possibility of
drowning. Their climbing abilities should be considered when you are desiging the enclosure. Screen the top to prevent
escapes. Multi-layers in the turtle's home is best. For example, an aquarium with a suspended land section in the middle, allowing your big-headed turtle
to use the whole tank as a water area but still allowing for a land area.
Do not allow the temperature to range too freely outside of 53 to 72 degrees F (12-23C).
Big-headed turtles are not what you would call 'handsome fellows'.
Similar to other turtles, Big-headed turtles have hard, protective, outer shells that protect the softer body parts. The shells are made of two parts:
- carapaces and
- plastrons.
The carapaces are those parts of the shell which cover the turtles' backs and the plastrons are those parts which cover the turtles' bellies.
Carapaces and plastrons are bridged by a network of tiny bones which runs upward from the plastron. Big-headed turtles are colored with olive-brown carapaces. Their plastrons are usually cream, yellow, or orange, and may have some other darker shadings.
Brown with some orange spotting is the color of big-head's skin, with some cream spots.
Big-headed turtles get their simple name from the rather large, hard heads--so big that they cannot pull them inside their shells.
Male big-headed turtles sport thick, long tails. Big-heads can really grow! They can sprout to to be about eight inches long and like other reptiles, big-headed turtles are of course,cold-blooded. Cold-blooded simply means that their body temperatures are the same as the temperatures of their surroundings. So cold day, cold turtle, and slower turtle.
Big-headed turtles enjoy the cool mountain streams of southern China, Thailand and Burma of Asia. Big-heads like to be active at night, when they are found walking along the bottoms of these waterways.
Food? Big-headed turtles are omnivorous. That means they eat both meat and plants, and the meat doesn't have to be alive. Their diet includes insects, fish, and yes... smaller turtles! They are not picky about eating their cousins when they are hungry.
It is unknown when big-headed turtles mate. Female big-headed turtles lay only small batches, of one or two eggs. Like all reptiles, after the females lay their eggs they have no further contact with their offspring.
When the little turtles claw their way out of their eggs, they make their way to the water and are on their own. The amount of time between the laying and the hatching of the eggs is called the incubation period.
Big-headed turtle eggs and the young turtles themselves are eaten by a number of land animals and birds.
Interestingly enough...
As the big-headed turtle is so rare, scientists have been able
to compile information about its diet only through observing captive, rather than wild, big-headed turtles. In captivity, the big-head eats meat, fish, and insects. In the wild these turtles most likely get most of their meals by
grabbing insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and small invertebrates
from the bottom of the stream
CLOSEST RELATIVES
Big-headed turtles are the only species in the family Platysternidae. Scientists at one time believed these turtles were closely related to New World pond turtles, such as the painted turtles that are found in much of North America. Now, however many people believe the closest relatives are the snapping turtles, of the Chelydridae, or even the Eurasian pond and river turtles and neotropical wood turtles of the family Geoemydidae. Some scientists believe the big-headed turtles are of the snapping turtle family, (based on the appearance) but most argue that big-headed turtles are unique enough to be in a separate family.
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Detailed Facts about the Big Head Turtle
The most obvious feature of Platysternon megacephalum is its very large head, which cannot be pulled into it's shell due to its mega dimensions (hence the latin term megacephalum or 'big head' in English.)
The dorsal (upper) surface of the cranium is, like a tank, covered over by an enlarged scute.(a chitinous, or bony external plate). The temporal region of the head reveals few irregular notches--it is smooth.
The sheath blanketing the top section of the jaw is large and extends close to the edge of the dorsal scute. The Big-headed turtle's carapace may reach up to 18.5 cm and his digits are webbed, each consisting of three phalanges.
The carapace, limbs and head,are a yellowish-brown to olive-and may
exhibit some mottling (patchiness).
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