Terrapene Ornata Research Paper

Ranging from the Rocky Mountains eastward to the Mississippi River, the ornate box turtle, Terrapene ornata, is the western counterpart of the common, or eastern box turtle, a group of species and subspecies known collectively by the scientific name Terrapene carolina.
Formally described by Swiss-American biologist Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) in 1857, the North American T. ornata is native to the Great Plains of the United States as well as two states in northwestern Mexico. Nearly a full century after the initial description, researchers validated the existence of two subspecies within the genus T. ornata. The original ornate box turtle described by Agassiz in 1857 became the first subspecies, T. ornata ornata. American herpetologist H. M. Smith and a colleague named Ramsey formally described the second species, T. ornata luteola, the desert box turtle, in 1952. See the section titled
Sexual dimorphism, i.e., differences in the appearance of the male and female of a given species, exists in ornate box turtles. Typically, adult males are somewhat smaller in overall size than females, and the rear lobe of their plastrons is concave The males’ eyes have a red iris while their heads may have a greenish coloration. In addition, males have longer, thicker tails than females. In contrast, females are slightly larger overall than males, the rear lobe of their plastrons is flat or slightly convex, and the females’ eyes have a yellowish-brown iris (Terrapene ornata, n.d.).
The coloration of the ornate box turtle’s head, limbs and tail is generally brown to black, and the species’ skin may display a pattern of yellow markings. Furthermore, the tail of the species often has a yellow stripe on its upper (dorsal)