Apalone spinifera spinifera
(Le Sueur, 1827)
Massac Co., Illinois. October 9, 2004.
While I had seen a number of softshells around Illinois, it wasn’t until 2004 that I was able to photograph one, at a fishing lake in Massac County. That photograph is lost, unfortunately, so the turtle pictured here is from a small creek in Montgomery County, Indiana, found in June of 2010. This turtle was the first spinifera that I was able to get in hand and get a feel for what these turtles are like.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
