Inherent morphology and ecology of the Red-legged Terrestrial Turtle

[aliriera]

Best regards to all the members of the prestigious HIVE community, especially to the creators of content in the area of Biological Sciences.

Each of the species that make up the biodiversity of living beings on planet Earth are fundamental to the balance of ecosystems and have a niche to fill in their environment, whether as part of the food chains, contributing to the dispersal of seeds, pollinating flowers or giving us their beauty as pets, livestock, or living wild in nature.

A savannah morrocoy or terrestrial turtle walking free in a natural area of the Andrés E. Blanco municipality, Lara state.

This is the case of the reptiles known as chelonians, a name that was used at the time when this humble author was an undergraduate in experimental sciences, which with scientific progress have been placed in new taxa, considering the morphological aspects and phylogeny that brings them closer to other animal groups, highlighting that there are turtles of terrestrial, marine and freshwater habitats.

Terrestrial turtle near a lagoon. Look at the beautiful design of the carapace.

Freshwater turtle, which lives as a pet, feeding on invertebrates (protein).

Many of the images you are looking at as you read this publication correspond to the specimen known as the savannah morroccoy, a land tortoise common in the tropical dry forests of Central and South America, from Panama to Paraguay, probably limited in their geographic area of distribution by their nature as cold-blooded animals and by the environmental temperature, which activates their metabolism and allows them to digest the food consumed, among which are varied vegetables, including leaves, flowers and fruits (herbivores), as well as animal protein, from invertebrates, lizards, fish, excrement and carrion.

A morrocoy Sabanero, a common terrestrial turtle in the natural areas of Venezuela.

At the taxonomic level, the morrocoy Sabanero or red-footed tortoise belongs to the Eukaryotic Domain, Kingdom Animalia, Class Sauropsida, Order Testudines, Suborder Cryptodira, Family Testudinidae, Genus Chelonoides, Species Chelonoides carbonaria, and we must differentiate it from the Species Chelonoides denticulata, commonly known as Yellow-footed tortoise, both for the color of the spots on the legs, as well as the larger size of the latter.

One red-footed turtle (morrocoy Sabanero)

Yellow-footed land turtles.
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It should be remembered that other specimens of the Order Testudines live all over the world, especially because of their ability to live a marine life, or in freshwater areas, where they feed omnivorously, protected by an external carapace welded to the ribs, which protects the internal organs but prevents breathing by movements of the rib cage, forcing them to fill and empty their lungs in a similar way to mammals, with contractions of the diaphragm muscle.

Freshwater turtle (Genus Mauremys) basking on the banks of a river.

The morrocoy Sabanero presents sexual dimorphism, since the female is larger than the male and the ventral area of the carapace (plastron) of the female is flat, while in the male it is concave (hollow), which facilitates the posture of the couple during sexual copulation, the tail of the male has a grimace that facilitates the penetration of the copulatory organ and, finally, the claws of the male's legs are longer than those of the female, since the male uses them to fight with other males, either for food, territory or sexual partners.

The breastplate or plastron of yellow color of this male morrocoy has a concave shape to facilitate sexual copulation.

The claws of this morrocoy are large and adapted for fighting with other males.

The tail of the male morroccoy curves inside the breastplate and adapts to the shape of the female's body.

After sexual copulation, the female morrocoy builds a nest underground, where she places the eggs (oviparous), covers them and lets solar radiation do the work of incubation. The incubation period lasts 120 to 150 days.

The nest built by the female morrocoy and one of the eggs of the brood.

The carapace of red-footed land turtles consists of bony plates that are welded to the vertebrae and ribs, externally covered by bony shields covered by a slightly calcified horny layer, which differentiates them from sea turtles, which have variations in the texture and rigidity of their external carapace.

This rigid carapace of the morrocoy has seams that join the bony plates.

Note the points of union between the dorsal ( backplate) and ventral (plastron) parts of the morrocoy's carapace.

The red-footed land turtle or morrocoy Sabanero has a black or brown carapace with yellow-orange or orange-reddish spots and the plastron or ventral region (plastron) is yellow, with visible seams of the bony plates.

The color of the carapace of this morrocoy is black, with yellow spots.

Look at the seams joining the bony plates and the orange spots on the front legs.

The average size of the morrocoy is about 30 cm, the male, and up to 40 cm, the female, and has circular red or orange spots on the front legs and head.

At first glance it is difficult to determine whether this large morrocoy is male or female.

The morrocoy Sabanero has diurnal habits and is in charge of dispersing the seeds of the fruits it eats, favoring the repopulation of the forest and plains areas where it lives, reminding them that this animal is the object of indiscriminate hunting, This is facilitated by the slowness of its gait and the appetite for its meat, both by the wild beasts of the forest and by Venezuelan farmers, who also raise it as a pet, putting it at serious risk of extinction in nature, also affected by the loss of habitat for agricultural purposes.

Children living in the Usera hamlet, Lara state, show three morrocoyes, which they have raised as pets.

I invite you to learn more about and protect the morrocoy Sabanero or red-footed land turtle, to ensure its permanence in natural areas and thus, achieve the balance of the ecosystems that this specimen of the Testudinidae Family occupies in our country.

This morrocoy Sabanero specimen shows its orange or red spots on the legs and its concave plastron or breastplate, which indicates that it is a male.

Suggested bibliography:

Red-footed tortoise or morrocoy Sabanero.
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Yellow-footed land turtle (Chelonoidis denticulata).
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Turtles: 5 characteristics of the longest-living reptiles.
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Thank you very much for visiting my blog.

Ali Riera

All photos, except the one indicating the source, were taken with a xiaomi redmi 9c cell phone and are property of @aliriera.