Critically Endangered
Flattened musk turtle
Sternotherus depressus
Flattened musk turtle is a turtle in the family Kinosternidae — Sternotherus depressus, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to United States.
Appearance
Both the common name and specific name refer to the fact that the species' carapace (upper shell) is much lower and flatter than those of the other members of the genus Sternotherus.
A small turtle, S. Depressus can have a straight carapace length of 7.5–10 cm (3.0–3.9 in) as an adult, with a record length of 11.4 cm (4+1⁄2 in).
Range and habitat
S. Depressus is an endemic with a restricted range, historically inhabiting the Black Warrior River drainage of north central Alabama. Serious declines have been observed throughout its range, and it has likely been extirpated from greater than 70% of its historic range, especially in much of the Mulberry Fork and the Locust Fork of the upper Black Warrior River Basin. Sipsey Fork populations have fared significantly better due to protection offered by the Bankhead National Forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
S. Depressus are omnivorous and mostly rely on gastropods (snails) and pelecypods (mussels) as a large part of their diet. The breeding and nesting season showed more overall activity and movement compared to the brumation season for S. Depressus.
In crisis
The flattened musk turtle is primarily threatened by habitat alteration and habitat destruction. Increased siltation in the streams also decreases the food availability for S. Depressus as mollusk populations decrease. Secondary threats to the flattened musk turtle are illegal collection for the pet trade and disease.
Habitat fragmentation also poses a significant threat to S. Depressus. Isolated populations have the potential to lose genetic viability and threaten normal population structure.
Flattened musk turtle is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Flattened musk turtle, Wikidata item Q1938586. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
