Life History
Platemys platycephala young or hatchlings typically resemble parents except for brighter coloration. Twist-necked hatchlings measure around 4–6 cm in carapace length and about 20 g or 0.04 lbs. Mating typically occurs during the rainy season of the Amazon rainforest (late March to early December). Males follow females, mount from behind, then proceed to rub their chin barbels (fleshy filament) against the top of females’ head. Some authors also report violent biting and water expulsion from the males nostrils during copulation. Coupling has been observed on land or in water and usually occurs late in the afternoon or at night. Oviposition comes during the dry season (late December to early March) when the female deposits a large, oval egg (around 5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide). Many herpetologists report females depositing another egg a couple of weeks later while some recreational collectors report multiple eggs at a time. Shallow indentations are made to deposit eggs and then lightly covered by sand and/or leaf litter.
Read more about this topic: Twist-necked Turtle
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or history:
“A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there—that of the pulse, the heart beat.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)