NICE CLAWS. NOW STROKE ME BEHIND MY HEAD

The Western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) gets its name from the bright red/orange color “painted” on the edge of the scutes.  Ex-scute me?  Ah, a scute is the horny scales that cover the shell.  Now, to be clear “horny” refers to horn-like.  The shell of a turtle is composed of two main parts.  The upper, dome-shaped shell is the “carapace”.  The flatter, bottom part of the shell is the plastron.  If you flip the turtle over you will notice that the plastron is yellow-orange with brown markings.  You can tell the sex of the turtle in a few ways.  Males, as shown in the picture, have long floreclaws and thicker tails than the females.  The long foreclaws are “sexy”.  The male will use the claws to stroke the female’s head and neck.  If the female finds him attractive (No, I don’t have a clue what characteristics makes a male Western painted turtle attractive!) she will swim to the bottom of the pond to mate.