Turtles 



Remarks: Snapping turtles are generally found in freshwater to brackish water 

 habitats with soft muddy substrate (Ernst and Barbour 1989) from eastern Cana- 

 da through the United States east of the Rockies south through Mexico and into 

 Ecuador. C. serpentina occurs today in the Ardis area. 



Dobie and Jackson (1979), first reported fossil material of C. serpenti- 

 na from Edisto Island with additional material reported by Roth and Laerm 

 (1980). 



Macroclemys temminckii - Alligator snapping turtle (Gray, 1855) 



Material: 1 partial right parietal (.109). 



Characters used for identification: The fossil parietal is identical to Recent spec- 

 imens of this turtle, differing from C. serpentina in that the dorsal surface is 

 smooth, i.e. without any of the prominent ornamentation consistently found in C. 

 serpentina (Fig. 3). The parietal of M. temminckii is generally more robust and 

 is longer with respect to width than specimens of C. serpentina of comparable 

 sizes. This was the only fossil element of this species collected from the site. 

 Because this represents a significant range extension, assignment to this species 

 was made only after exhaustive comparisons to the fossil and Recent collections 

 at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the South Carolina State Museum 

 negated all other possibilities. 



Remarks: This is the largest freshwater turtle in North America and possibly the 

 heaviest in the world (Ernst and Barbour 1989). The alligator snapping turtle 

 often can be found in the deep waters of lakes, ponds, rivers and bayous that con- 

 tain abundant aquatic vegetation and muddy bottoms. This turtle is highly aquat- 

 ic and ranges westward from northern Florida into Texas along the Gulf Coast 

 and thence northward up the Mississippi Valley into Illinois, Iowa and Kansas 

 (Ernst and Barbour 1989). 



This is the first fossil or Recent evidence of Macroclemys from South 

 Carolina and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. 



Emydidae 



Emydinae 



Chrysemys picta - Painted turtle (Schneider, 1783) 



Material: An individual specimen consisting of a complete carapace (missing the 

 3rd right marginal) and plastron (.110); 7 cervical vertebrae (.110.1 -.110.7); 1 

 ulna (.110.16); 1 radius (.110.17); 4 phalanges (.110.18-.110.21); 1 ungual 

 (.110.22); 2 partial scapulo-acromial processes (.11 0.11 -.11 0.1 2); 2 coracoids 



