All Angles Creatures
Testudines · GeoemydidaeEntry 18,260 of 21,572
Chocoan River turtle, Rhinoclemmys nasuta

Reptilia · Testudines

Rhinoclemmys nasutaBoulenger, 1902

Chocoan River turtle

Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist

A water-living, active by day or night turtle from the Neotropic region, reaching 220 mm nose to tail.

Also called large-nosed Wood Turtle.

ReptiliaTestudinesGeoemydidaeRhinoclemmys

Grows to
220mm
greatest recorded
Active
Cathemeral
Lives up to
5.8years
Lives
Aquatic
Body length across Geoemydidae

Longer than only 32% of all species in Geoemydidae anyone has measured.

32% of 69 species are smaller68% 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

20 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
Near Threatened
Population trend
Unspecified

The animal itself

Pupil
Round
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
5.8years

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
220mm8.75 in

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

Body mass · greatestcomputed
1747g3.9 lb

largely converted from length by allometry in the source

Body mass at hatching
52.7g1.9 oz

How it lives

Active
Cathemeral
Where it lives
Aquatic
Habitat
Wetlands
Region
Neotropic
Highest it lives · above sea level
77m

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1eggs

Naming and history

Subspecies
No
Described by
Boulenger
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1902

Feeding

150kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 1,747 g, the heaviest recorded for Chocoan River 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
  • 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
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • 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
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Sex decided by
  • 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). Rhinoclemmys nasuta. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhinoclemmys-nasuta

@misc{rhinoclemmys_nasuta_2026,
  title  = {Rhinoclemmys nasuta},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhinoclemmys-nasuta}
}

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.