IX 



CINOSTERNIDAE 



343 



the snout rather compressed laterally, and pointed underneath, 

 with several short barbels. The neck is long and slender. The 

 carapace of the young is keeled, each of the neural shields being 



B C 



Fig. 75. — Cinosternum odoratum, young specimens. x |. 

 A and B, males ; C, female. 



raised in the middle line ; but in full-grown specimens the shell 

 becomes quite smooth and rounded. The horny shields of the 

 plastron are relatively largest in the young, but they soon leave 

 ever-increasing spaces between them, which are then filled with 

 soft skin only, which thinly covers the underlying bone. The 



