Snapping turtles, while they do not make good pets for the average person, are fascinating creatures who are largely unchanged from their prehistoric form when they crawled the great swamps of earth and watched the coming and eventually the going of the dinosaurs--living through the great climate changes of the past to survive to this day, crawling the swamps and rivers of our present world.

Snapping turtles, like other turtles, have hard shells which protect their softer body parts.

These shells have two parts.

• The parts of the shells covering the turtles' backs are called the carapaces.
  
• The parts covering the turtles' bellies are called the plastrons.
  

The carapaces and plastrons are connected by a web of tiny bones that extend upward from the belly or plastron. Snapping turtles have dull gray, black, or brown carapaces which are often covered with algae, small living organisms.

They also have a pattern of rough, raised joined scales, called scutes, upon their carapaces.

Snapping turtles have large heads, strong jaws, and long tails.They have been known to grow up to two feet in length and weigh as much as two-hundred pounds.

Like other reptiles, snapping turtles are cold-blooded.

This means their body temperatures are the same as the temperatures of their surroundings.

They are also like other turtles in their breathing habits. Snapping turtles breathe through their lungs when they are on land and through their skin when they are in water.

Snapping turtles spend most of their time walking along the bottom of freshwater lakes, rivers, and ponds. Because of their heavy shell, they rarely swim from place to place. Snapping turtles are found from Canada to the northwestern parts of South America. They are omnivorous reptiles. That means they eat both meat and plants. They eat mostly insects, fish, smaller turtles, mollusks, plant life, and carrion, or dead animal flesh. Snapping turtles catch their prey by hiding in the sand and mud on the bottom of the water and waiting. When something to eat swims by, they snap their heads up out of their hiding place and close their mouths over their prey.

Snapping turtles mate in the water, but go onto land to lay their eggs.

The females build nests where they lay their clutches, batches, of eggs. Snapping turtles lay between 20 and 80 eggs in each clutch depending on the species. These round eggs look like small ping-pong balls. 

After the eggs are laid, the female goes back into the water and has no further relationship with her young. When the eggs hatch, the young snapping turtles find their way into the water and survive independently. The time between the laying and hatching of the eggs is known as the incubation period.

Snapping turtles are largely protected by their hard outer shell. Their marvellous ability to blend with their surroundings on the bottom of the water also helps to camouflage their appearance and hide them from some predators. When snapping turtles are threatened by predators they raise their bodies onto their feet and lunge at their attackers.

Snapping turtles live for up to sixty years, provided they are not subject to unnatural accidents.

Let's hope that the Snapping Turtle continues to roam our swamps and rivers for a long time to come--an animal who is more ancient than humans and deserves a place, as do we all, on our great planet Earth.