Reptile/Amphibian of the Week

[Teenage Herpetologist]

Hello. Every week, I will do a reptile or amphibian of the week. I will give a picture of the reptile or amphibian and then give some information about it.


This week's reptile is the Mata Mata Turtle!





https://images.app.goo.gl/4QHA5BGcQkErLfP16






The mata mata is a large, sedentary turtle with a large, triangular, flattened head with many tubercles and flaps of skin, and a "horn" on its long and tubular snout. Three barbels occur on the chin and four additional filamentous barbels at the upper jaw, which is neither hooked nor notched. The Mata Mata Turtle's brown or black, oblong carapace can measure up to 45 cm (18 in) at adult age. The full adult weight is 15 kg (33 lb). The Mata Mata Turtle's plastron is reduced, narrowed, hingeless, shortened towards the front, and deeply notched at the rear with narrow bridges. These may be meant to allow the turtle to resemble a piece of bark, camouflaging it from possible predators. The plastron and bridges are cream to yellow or brown. The head, neck, tail, and limbs are grayish brown on adults. The neck is longer than the vertebra under its carapace and is fringed with small skin flaps along both sides. Hatchlings show a pink to reddish tinge in the underside edge of their carapaces and plastrons that gradually disappear as they grow. Each forefoot has five webbed claws. Males have concave plastrons and longer, thicker tails than females.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Just a friendly reminder...
If you're going to plagiarize Wikipedia or anyone else, it's customary to quote and credit them and provide a link to your source. E.g....

From Wikipedia:

The mata mata is a large, sedentary turtle with a large, triangular, flattened head with many tubercles and flaps of skin, and a "horn" on its long and tubular snout.[7] Three barbels occur on the chin and four additional filamentous barbels at the upper jaw, which is neither hooked nor notched.[12]

The mata mata's brown or black, oblong carapace can measure up to 45 cm (18 in) at adult age.[13] The full adult weight is 15 kg (33 lb).[13] The mata mata's plastron is reduced, narrowed, hingeless, shortened towards the front, and deeply notched at the rear with narrow bridges.[12] These may be meant to allow the turtle to resemble a piece of bark, camouflaging it from possible predators.[14] The plastron and bridges are cream to yellow or brown.[12]

The head, neck, tail, and limbs are grayish brown on adults.[12] The neck is longer than the vertebra under its carapace and is fringed with small skin flaps along both sides.[12] Hatchlings show a pink to reddish tinge in the underside edge of their carapaces and plastrons that gradually disappear as they grow.

Each forefoot has five webbed claws. Males have concave plastrons and longer, thicker tails than females.[12]

 

[Teenage Herpetologist]

I tried, I couldn't figure it out though. If you could tell me how, please do.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Highlight the text to be quoted. Go to the selection on the editor toolbar that looks like ...▼
The second item on the drop-down list is "quote"; click on that and the highlighted text will be put into a quote box. Attribution can be accomplished a number of ways; the way I showed is one.

I highlighted the word Wikipedia, copied the URL of the source from its window, and linked it with the little chain(link) symbol in the toolbar with a copy/paste.

You can also just include the source URL at the top or bottom inside the quote box.

 

[Teenage Herpetologist]

Ok, thanks.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

You can also just include a line, "From: " inside or outside (but just above or below) the quoted text. These are shortcut methods for informal forums. There are different standards for published works, articles, papers, etc. such as APA, MLA, and Chicago style.

Here are a number of articles on more formal citations you may need later in high school, college, or beyond if you do pursue herpetology. how to cite wikipedia as a source

 

[Teenage Herpetologist]

Got it.