Myuchelys latisternumGray, 1867

Saw-shelled Turtle

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

A water-living, day-active, omnivorous turtle from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 28 cm across the shell.

Also called Northern Australian Snapping Turtle.

Reptilia › Testudines › Chelidae › Myuchelys

Grows to: 280mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Omnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives up to: 26.6years

Body length across Chelidae

Longer than 50% of all species in Chelidae anyone has measured.

50% of 42 species are smaller50% larger

155 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest500 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 155 to 500 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

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

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

The animal itself

Colour on the back: Brown
Pattern on the back: Blotched
Pupil: Round
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 26.6years

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded: 280mm11 in
Shell length, front to back · greatest recorded: 280mm11 in
Largest female · shell length: 280mm11 in
Largest male · shell length: 180mm7 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 3016g6.6 lb
Body mass · a typical adult: 1377g3 lb
Body mass at hatching: 12.05g0.43 oz

How it lives

Diet: Omnivorous
How it hunts: Active foraging
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Aquatic
Habitat: Forest, Savanna, Wetlands
Region: Australo-Pacific

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Average clutch: 17eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 9–20eggs
Egg length: 34mm1.25 in
Egg width: 22mm0.9 in

Naming and history

Subspecies: No
Described by: Gray
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1867

Keeping one

No enclosure size is given here

The standard sets enclosure size for turtles and tortoises genus by genus, and this genus is not among the roughly sixty it lists. No figure is given rather than one borrowed from a different animal.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Saw-shelled Turtle. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

243kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 3,016 g, the heaviest recorded for Saw-shelled 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
— Largest female · snout to vent
— Largest male · snout to vent
— Hatchling length · snout to vent
— Hatchling length · nose to tail
— Largest juvenile · snout to vent
— Largest juvenile · shell length
— Body mass · adult female, mean
— Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
— Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
— Eats arthropods
— Eats vertebrates
— Eats plant matter
— How the young develop
— Gestation or incubation
— Mean clutch · smallest reported
— Mean clutch · largest reported
— Clutches in a year
— 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
— Sex decided by
— Conservation status
— 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 Chelidae

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). Myuchelys latisternum. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/myuchelys-latisternum

@misc{myuchelys_latisternum_2026,
  title  = {Myuchelys latisternum},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/myuchelys-latisternum}
}

Sources

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