608 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
SOFT-SHELLED TURTLE (Trionyx ferox) : SOUTHERN UNITED STATES 
Despite its soft shell, the species is by no means defenseless. 
powerful mandibles, it deals a bite with the rapidity of a serpent’s stroke. 
Provided with keen and 
A big specimen 
weighs 4o pounds. The species is edible (see page 609). Photo by Raymond L. Ditmars. 
isolated groups of islands in the tropical 
Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Though 
the crocodilians and the great sea turtles 
outclass the present creatures in weight, 
the latter are, in comparison to other 
tortoises, of astonishing proportions. 
As fossils of closely related species 
are found on the various continents far 
north and south of the habitat of the 
survivors, it is reasonable to assume that 
the races of great tortoises of these min- 
iature tropical archipelagoes have passed 
through ages when volcanic disturbances 
shattered great portions of the globe and 
numerous scaled and plated monsters de- 
generated and perished. 
In an accompanying photograph the 
reader may compare one of these island 
patriarchs with a modern tortoise of 
average size. Six species of the giant 
tortoises inhabit the Galapagos Islands, 
which are about 500 miles west of the 
South American coast and about under 
the Equator ; they occur nowhere else in 
the New World (see page 607). 
The Aldabra Islands, in the Indian 
Ocean, form the habitat of four other 
species, and four species are also found 
in the Mauritius-Rodriguez group. A 
number of expeditions have been dis- 
patched to the colonies of these interest- 
ing animals and they are rapidly nearing 
extinction in a wild state. 
Among the freaks of the members of 
the: tuntle and” tortoise ondenmancmede 
matamata and the snake-necked turtle. 
The former is found in Brazil and the 
Guianas. It has a broad, low shell and 
