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Testudines · GeoemydidaeEntry 12,786 of 21,572
Common thread turtle, Mauremys sinensis

Reptilia · Testudines

Mauremys sinensisGray, 1834

Common thread turtle

Photograph by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A water-living, active by day or night turtle from the Oriental region, reaching 271 mm nose to tail.

Also called Chinese Striped-necked Turtle.

ReptiliaTestudinesGeoemydidaeMauremys

Grows to
271mm
greatest recorded
Active
Cathemeral
Lives up to
22.8years
Lives
Aquatic
Body length across Geoemydidae

Longer than 67% of all species in Geoemydidae anyone has measured.

67% of 69 species are smaller33% larger
130 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest800 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 130 to 800 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

26 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
Critically Endangered
Population trend
Decreasing

The animal itself

Colour on the back
Gray, Green
Pattern on the back
Uniform
Pupil
Round
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
22.8years

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
271mm10.5 in

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

Body mass · greatestcomputed
2833g6.2 lb

largely converted from length by allometry in the source

Body mass · a typical adult
1241g2.7 lb

AnAge rates this record "acceptable"

Body mass at hatching
14.7g0.52 oz

How it lives

Active
Cathemeral
Where it lives
Aquatic
Habitat
Forest, Wetlands
Region
Oriental
Highest it lives · above sea level
1000m

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Temperature
Average clutch
4.5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
5–20eggs
Clutches in a year
1per year

Naming and history

Subspecies
No
Described by
Gray
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1834

Feeding

230kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 2,833 g, the heaviest recorded for Common thread 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 · adult female, mean
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • 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
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Limbs
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • 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
  • Range size

Others in Geoemydidae

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). Mauremys sinensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/mauremys-sinensis

@misc{mauremys_sinensis_2026,
  title  = {Mauremys sinensis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/mauremys-sinensis}
}

Sources

  1. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  3. 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.
  4. AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.