Soft-Shelled Cantor’s Giant Turtle.

By Alex in Animals & Pets, Pictures on May 28, 2007 at 3:53 am

Our weekly collaboration with Cellar Image of the Day brings us the image of this strange animal: a rare soft-shelled turtle called Cantor’s giant turtle.

A 24-pound female Cantor’s giant turtle — known for its rubbery skin and jaws powerful enough to crush bone — was captured and released by researchers in March, U.S.-based Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund said in a statement. …

The species can grow up to 6 feet in length and weigh more than 110 pounds. It was last spotted by scientists in the Cambodian wild in 2003. It also was found in small numbers in Laos, but appears to have disappeared from Vietnam and Thailand.

The turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over its internal organs. It protects itself from predators by spending 95 percent of its life hidden in sand or mud with only its eyes and nose showing.

Link – Thanks Rebecca! Don’t forget to check out Cellar IotD for more fun images!


Email This Post
Tweet This Post 
Share This Post on Facebook

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

  1. Chris
    May 28th, 2007 at 7:57 am

    you’ll need a big pot to cook a soup out of this one!

  2. Cierra
    Nov 18th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    hey thats not cool.
    the turtle is kinda crazy looking w/ no shell though o.o
    never heard of it.

  3. Matt
    Feb 18th, 2008 at 7:34 pm

    I’d poke it with a stick.

  4. jeromy
    Mar 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am

    thats cool looking, he would make a great ninja turtle.

  5. gwapo
    Mar 25th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    hey i have one of this here in the philippines!!

  6. Khadri@gmail.com
    Apr 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 am

    Turtle’s rock .. They are lovely .

  7. Dude
    Apr 9th, 2008 at 9:22 am

    I like turtle said the zombie guy.

  8. liz
    May 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 am

    chronic that turtle looks like an ass hole.. sick put a shell on that bad boy

  9. make money
    May 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 am

    Yeah my people would love cook this amphibian creature. I don’t know why most amphibian meat are sweet just like the frogs. And because of the sweet meat there was an incident the guy who caught this creature lost one of his fingers in a single bite due to mis-handling loll. Never get too close to the mouth it’s more sharper than samurai loll.

  10. Mia Ibay
    Jul 29th, 2008 at 6:36 am

    we found one in our neighborhood. it just appeared at our doorstep. It’s being adopted by our neighbor who has a small pond. It is about six inches in length. Never thought it could grow to 6 feet long, as big as humans.
    Mia
    Quezon City
    Philippines

  11. esay
    Nov 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm

    what the crap!did a plane squish it. it looks like a freakin …uh alien thingy.alien turtle thingy says to everyone:i come in peace.hahaha

  13. Someone
    Nov 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Wow, I thought that turtle had been deshelled when I first looked at the image. That’s one strange animal, looks like a pancake.

  14. ice
    Dec 5th, 2008 at 5:18 am

    it is flat cause the enviroment it live in require to be flat, in the water, his soft shell will be cover in algae to conceal it from predator and because it is so flat it can disguise it self from being eaten like the flounder fish

  15. SME 1
    Jan 1st, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    TURTLES ARE CUTE BUT THIS 1 LOOKS FLAAT AND LIKE A HOT WATER BOTTLE HAHAHHA X

  16. SME 1
    Jan 1st, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    ICE NO 1 CARES ABOUT FACTS ABOUT IT WERE JUST SAYIN WHY IT LUKS FLAT STAY OUT OF IT ULSO WHT IS ICE 4 A NAME AND SOME1 I DINT COPY UR NAME I DINT EVEN NO U PUT IT TILL I LOOKED AT THE MESSAGES I JUST DNT WNT PEOPLE 2 NOW MA NAME SAME AS U PROBLEY IS IT THE SAME REASON ? XX

  17. hmeref
    Jan 20th, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    Haha this turtle looks retarded. I kinda feel bad for it bc u people keep making fun of the poor thing. Haha LOL. That last comment was hilarious but yet so true rofl.

  18. Page
    Jan 26th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    No offence, but it looks sorta like road kill, i love turtles =P but it looks a little… well FLAT.

  19. steven
    Jan 31st, 2009 at 8:58 am

    turtle are awsome they are prehistoric

  20. silvia a
    Feb 10th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

    Dats a cool lookin turtle i thought it was flat n died when i first look at it. Yuck! lol

  21. randall
    Mar 31st, 2009 at 10:03 am

    That turtle look like it ate a pancake then got raned over and squarshed by a plane. I like it and its nose. lol.

  22. Reese
    Jul 6th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    We found a turtle like this 3 weeks ago in Birmingham, Alabama. It was on the side of the street near a small stream. We stopped to look at it b/c it was so flat looking. I thought at first it had been run over by a car. There were some people across the street in their yard who came over to look at it, too. They carried it closer to the stream. It wasn’t happy about being picked up. It was about the size of an extra large pizza.

  24. rakeyy
    Mar 19th, 2010 at 11:42 pm

    i love turtles
    but that one looks so stupid it
    puts me of getting a turtle my-self


Keep track of the comments with Comment RSS

Don't Miss: New Stuff | Bestsellers | The Cute Store
                   Funny T-Shirts

Need a gift? Get unforgettable gifts for:
Geeks | Pranksters | Kids | Hipsters | Shutterbugs
Lijit Search
Old school? Bookmark us! RSS Feed Twitter Facebook Page