Check out the gular scute on this guy! Male gopher tortoises tend to have larger gular scutes than females, which they use to “joust” with one another in territorial disputes. Bonus pygmy rattlesnake and two-toed amphiuma with fresh battle scars from a run in with a predator. #herping #gophertortoise #pygmyrattlesnake #gopheruspolyphemus #sistrurusmiliarius #twotoedamphiuma #amphiuma #amphiumameans #gawildlife
Check out the maw on this 85 lb Alligator snapping turtle! We pulled this male from a small tributary of the Arkansas River this morning. Male ASTs get much larger than females, have thicker tails and cloacas that are situated farther down their tails away from their plastrons. We placed this trap yesterday morning, directly upstream of a logjam where this turtle was almost certainly hanging out as we worked. He couldn’t resist the smell of the frozen Walmart catfish nuggets we were using for bait. #alligatorsnappingturtle #loggerhead #macrochelystemminckii #macrochelys #turtletrapping #conservation #arkansasriver #arkansaswildlife #biology #herping
Yesterday we caught two of the largest and most secretive salamanders in the Southeast! This two-toed amphiuma (slides 1, 2) and greater siren (slides 3, 5) were in one of our turtle traps. If you’ve spent any time in the cypress swamps of the southeast, there’s a good chance you’ve been within a few feet of these giant salamanders without realizing it. They spend almost 100% of their time in the muck and leaves at the bottom of blackwater swamps.
Both salamanders look somewhat similar, but there are a few obvious differences. Amphiumas have no external gills and four very small, vestigial limbs (you can see the front two if you look closely in the first video). There are three amphiuma species, the one-toed, two-toed, and three-toed amphiuma, that can be distinguished by counting the number of toes on their little feet!
The sirens have feather-like external gills and only have two front limbs. Their front limbs are more developed than the amphiuma’s, and you can see this one use them in slide 4 to climb the bucket wall.
#twotoedamphiuma #greatersiren #amphiuma #siren #herping #salamander #turtletrapping #cypressswamp #gawildlife #wildlifebiology #naturalist
A nesting common snapping turtle that I encountered today while placing camera trap arrays in a forested floodplain along the Little Pee Dee river. #snappingturtle #turtlenest #herping #scwildlife #copperhead
Flipped my backyard tin this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find a corn snake, broad-headed skinks, little brown skinks and an eastern fence lizard making use of it! #herping #cornsnake #littlebrownskink #broadheadedskink #scwildlife
A mating pair of bee-mimic robber flies (genus Laphria) perched atop a poison ivy leaflet! Flies in this genus are known for their mimicry of bees and wasps, an adaptation that helps them avoid predation. Also pictured are pink lady’s slippers, mating American toads, a copperhead that @aidangphillips nearly stepped on yesterday, and the flower of the Dutchman’s pipe, the host plant of the pipevine swallowtail. #robberfly #pinkladyslipper #copperhead #pipevineswallowtail #ncwildlife
I had the opportunity to rockhound at a site in Greenville county, SC this afternoon. We found quite a few spectacular quartz crystal clusters! 🪨⛏️ #rockhounding #quartz #crystals #geology
A turkey nest I discovered on this morning’s hunt! The hen waited until I had my decoy up and was just settling in to my spot before she decided to flush, otherwise I would have never noticed her 🪶#turkeynest #ncwildlife #publiclandhunting #shedhunting
Tried my hand at turkey hunting for the first time this morning, and while I’m not bringing home a gobbler, I did find my first morels! #morel #foraging #mushroomhunting #morchella #ncwildlife
I found another large angustidens tooth today (right) very close to where I found yesterday’s tooth (left). This tooth measures a whopping 4.2”! I also found my first “LYDIA E. PINKHAM, VEGETABLE COMPOUND” bottle. Lydia’s compound was first sold in 1873 as a remedy for “all those painful complaints and weaknesses so common to our best female population”. The medicine claimed to cure “all ovarian troubles” including “inflammation, ulceration, falling and displacements of the womb” and was particularly suited for problems associated with “change of life” (menopause). In pic 2 you can see clear evidence of shark predation on the bone of an unidentified prehistoric creature! #fossilhunting #sharktooth #angustidens #antiquebottles #scwildlife
A ~30,000,000 year-old Otodus angustidens tooth that I found this afternoon in Colleton county, SC. This tooth measures 4.07” and came from a shark that would have been 30 feet or longer! #fossilhunting #sharktooth #angustidens #megalodon #scwildlife
Spotted salamander eggs developing in a vernal pool in Western North Carolina. Their green color is due to the presence of Oophilia amblystomatis (which roughly translates to “salamander egg lover”), a species of green algae that grows within the salamander egg capsules as well as the individual cells of the developing salamander! This is the only known example of vertebrate/algae endosymbiosis. The relationship is thought to be mutualistic, with the developing salamanders benefiting from oxygen and sugars produced by the algae, while the algae benefit from excess nitrogen in the salamander’s waste. Bonus wood frog eggs in the last pic. #endosymbiosis #spottedsalamander #vernalpool #herping #ncwildlife
