False map turtles use touch and body language (postures and movements) to communicate. Male turtles display tactile behaviors during courtship; the male uses his fore claws to drum over his potential mate’s eyes.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: pheromones
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; vibrations ; chemical
False map turtles are not currently considered threatened. Turtle populations throughout the United States are affected by collection for the pet trade, freshwater habitat destruction, and water pollution.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: no special status
False map turtle hatchlings remain in the nest until the yolk sac is completely absorbed. The hatchlings leave the nest and have to find their way to the water where they live independently.
Incubation temperature of false map turtle nests influences hatchling head pattern, frequency of scute anomalies, and determines the sex of the hatchlings. Eggs incubated at 25 °C or lower are predominately male and eggs incubated at 30 °C or higher produce mostly females. Incubation periods ranged from 52 to 73 days for nests producing all females and 58 to 85 days for nests producing only males.
Development - Life Cycle: temperature sex determination
There are no known adverse affects of G. pseudogeographica on humans.
False map turtles are good beginner turtles as pets; however they are sensitive to water quality so close attention to their water quality is necessary.
Positive Impacts: pet trade
False map turtles are predators of mollusks, insects, worms, algae, and other plant material and prey to foxes, raccoons, otters, birds, and some types of fish. Grackles remove leeches from the leg and neck cavities of the turtles while they are basking. In addition, false map turtle eggs can be a host to fly maggots.
Mutualist Species:
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
False map turtles are generalist omnivores. The difference in size between males and females provides a partitioning of food resources. Females eat mollusks, (Vallisneria, Potamogeton, Lemna, and insects including caddisflies (Trichoptera), mayfly larvae (Ephemeroptera), and damselfly larvae (Zygoptera). Males eat the same insects as females, along with beetles (Coleoptera), flies (Diptera), other insect larvae, mollusks, fish carrion, and small amounts of vegetation.
Animal Foods: fish; carrion ; insects; mollusks; terrestrial worms; aquatic crustaceans
Plant Foods: algae
Primary Diet: omnivore
False map turtles populate areas of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their basins in Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
False map turtles are found predominantly in large rivers and backwaters, but also in bayous, oxbows, lakes, ponds, sloughs, drowned forests, and occasionally marshes. They prefer water with slow currents, places to bask, and abundant aquatic vegetation. They can sometimes be found in the swiftly flowing main channels of large rivers.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; freshwater
Aquatic Biomes: lakes and ponds; rivers and streams
Wetlands: marsh
A male G. pseudogeographica konii that was caught as a juvenile, lived for 35 years and 5 months at the Columbus Zoo. It is impossible to reliably estimate the ages of individuals over 15 years because the rings become less and less visible as they shed their epidermal scutes.
Range lifespan
Status: captivity: 35 (high) years.
Typical lifespan
Status: wild: 30 to 50 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 32.5 years.
The carapace is olive, brown, or black with dark blotches that have yellow lines around them. The lines sometimes form a web pattern over the entire carapace and may or may not have blotches; this is where it gets the name false map turtle because the lines form a sort of map across the shell. These markings are brighter on young turtles than on adults. The carapace has serrate margins and a vertebral keel that is more prominent in the young. The plastron is cream to yellow colored, but the young have a dark pattern there as well. False map turtles have olive to brown skin with yellow lines on their legs, tail, chin, and neck. The head is moderately broad and on some there is a backwards L behind each eye.
Males are 9 to 15 cm in length and females are 12 to 27 cm in length. Adult females, on average, are 1.50 to 1.74 times larger than adult males and have wider heads. Adult males have elongated second and third fore claws, a longer tail, and their anal opening is posterior to the carapacial margin. Females in captivity were found to have a mass from 1100 to 1800 g.
Two sub-species of Graptemys pseudogeographica are currently recognized: G. pseudogeographica pseudogeographica and G. pseudogeographica konii. G. pseudogeographica konii has a more extensive plastron pattern.
False map turtle eggs are elliptical and average 32 to 41 mm in length, 18 to 26 mm in width, and weigh about 6 to 11 g. The hatchlings are nearly round with patterns similar to the adults of their subspecies. The keel on the first three vertebra of the carapace is well developed and the posterior rim of the carapace is more serrate than on the adults. Also, hatchling plastron patterns are darker than adult plastron patterns.
Range mass: 1100 to 1800 g.
Range length: 9 to 27 cm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger; sexes shaped differently
False map turtles are very timid and will quickly flee when approached. They rarely attempt to bite when handled, but may empty their bladder.
Red foxes, raccoons, otters, and maggots of the fly Metoposarcophaga importans are predators of their nests and eggs.
Ring-billed gulls, crows, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and great blue herons are predators of emerging hatchlings. Bass, catfish, and pike are predators to the hatchlings once they have reached the water. Rice rats are predators of young turtles.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Male false map turtles identify a potential mate using visual and olfactory cues; the olfactory cues come from the female’s anal vent. Once a female is found, there is a male courtship display where the male first strokes his potential mate’s head and neck with his foreclaws. The male then drums his foreclaws over the female’s eyes. If she remains motionless, the male will then attempt to mate with her. Copulation lasts from 15 seconds to over 4 hours and is facilitated by the male hooking his tail around the female’s tail.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Graptemys pseudogeographica mate twice a year in April and again in October and November. Nesting season lasts from mid-May to late July, with the first clutch laid from mid-May to mid-June. Nests are excavated during the day with most clutches being deposited in the morning. Large groups of female false map turtles can be found near nesting beaches waiting environmental factors to become favorable for nesting. Nests are located anywhere from 5 to 150 m from the water in open sand areas or areas containing low shrubs. The female digs the nest with her hind feet to be 10 to 16 cm deep. After the eggs are laid they are covered and packed down with sand. Females can lay 2 to 3 clutches a year with clutch sizes of 8 to 22 eggs.
Male false map turtles sexually mature at 4 to 6 years and females sexually mature at about 8 to 14 years.
Breeding interval: Breeding occurs twice a year.
Breeding season: Mating occurs in April and October, egg-laying for the first clutch occurs in mid-May to mid-June.
Range number of offspring: 8 to 22.
Average number of offspring: 14.
Range gestation period: 69 to 75 days.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 8 to 14 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 to 6 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Beyond the female providing the egg with yolk, creating the nest, and laying the eggs, there are no other parental investments made by false map turtles.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
The false map turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica) is a species of turtle endemic to the United States. It is a common pet species. Two subspecies are recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies described here.
Also known as a "sawback" turtle, the turtle has a carapace featuring a vertebral row of low spines, and is serrated on the posterior rim. The carapace is olive to brown in color with light yellowish markings with dark borders. The plastron color varies from cream to yellow and is patterned with dark lines along the seams in juveniles. The body color of the false map turtle is grayish brown to blackish and is marked with light brown, yellow, or whitish stripes. The eye can be brown, light yellow, white, or green and is crossed with a dark bar. Narrow hooked marks behind the eye fuse with dorsal lines on the head and neck. Also, small light-colored spots occur below the eye and on the chin.
The false map turtle lives in large streams of the Missouri and Mississippi River systems, ranging from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, through the Dakotas southward to southwestern Alabama, southern and western Mississippi, and Louisiana. The false map turtle also lives in several other river systems of Southwest Louisiana and East Texas.
In the Midwest, the false map turtle is a species of special interest in Ohio.
Map turtles of all kinds are avid baskers, spending many hours during the day in the sun. When with other turtles, they also are very communal, sharing space and using each other for predator-watching, increasing the odds of surviving an attack.
The false map turtle is a strong swimmer and prefers rivers and large creeks with moderate currents, containing aquatic vegetation, as well as snags or floating logs. They are also comfortable in deep and swift water. The turtles are present in oxbow lakes and sloughs, but are absent from lakes, ponds, or small streams. Basking is important to these turtles, and they may even be found on steep, slippery snags.
A variety of threats face this species, including the destruction of nests of eggs by animals and insects, falling victim to gill nets, and being shot. False map turtles, much like red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans), have also been collected for the pet trade.
Clutch preparation of a breeding false map turtle on a meadow
Same turtle during oviposition
The false map turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica) is a species of turtle endemic to the United States. It is a common pet species. Two subspecies are recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies described here.
