All Angles Creatures
Testudines · KinosternidaeEntry 10,643 of 21,572
Durango Mud Turtle, Kinosternon durangoense

Reptilia · Testudines

Kinosternon durangoenseIverson, 1979

Durango Mud Turtle

Photograph by Mauricio Calderón, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active turtle from the Nearctic region, reaching 145 mm nose to tail.

ReptiliaTestudinesKinosternidaeKinosternon

Grows to
144.6mm
greatest recorded
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
39.9years
Lives
Aquatic, terrestrial
Body length across Kinosternidae

Longer than only 37% of all species in Kinosternidae anyone has measured.

37% of 27 species are smaller63% larger
114 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest380 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 114 to 380 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

21 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Conservation status
Data Deficient

The animal itself

Pupil
Round
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
39.9years
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
24.9°C77 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
22–27.8°C72–82 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
144.6mm5.75 in

total length, tail included — Colston, Kulkarni, Jetz, and Pyron, 2020, BMC Evol. Biol., 20:81

Body mass · greatestcomputed
484g1.1 lb

largely converted from length by allometry in the source

Body mass at hatching
4.84g0.17 oz

How it lives

Active
Diurnal
Where it lives
Aquatic, terrestrial
Habitat
Wetlands
Region
Nearctic

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
4.78eggs
Clutches in a year
1per year

Naming and history

Subspecies
No
Described by
Iverson
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1979

Keeping one

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 77 °F (24.9 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

48kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 484 g, the heaviest recorded for Durango Mud Turtle — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Still living
  • Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
  • Length snout to vent · adult female mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Shell length, front to back · greatest recorded
  • Largest female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Limbs
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Sex decided by
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Biome
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Suborder
  • Infraorder
  • Type locality
  • Active in
  • Mainland or island
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • Highest it lives · above sea level
  • Range size

Others in Kinosternidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Kinosternon durangoense. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/kinosternon-durangoense

@misc{kinosternon_durangoense_2026,
  title  = {Kinosternon durangoense},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/kinosternon-durangoense}
}

Sources

  1. Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.