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Reptilia    Testudines    Trionychidae  

Smooth Softshell
Apalone mutica (LeSueur, 1827)
AY-PUH-loh-nee — MYOO-tih-kuh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.10.16.44)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 3.59 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Arkansas Colorado Florida Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska New Mexico North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania South Dakota Tennessee Texas West Virginia Wisconsin

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its leathery shell and smooth, unkeeled carapace.
Apalone — From Greek hapalos (ἁπαλός), meaning “soft” or “tender,” and possibly ōnē (ὄνη), a suffix used in zoological names. The name refers to the turtle’s soft, leathery carapace compared to hard-shelled turtles.
mutica — From Latin muticus, meaning “blunt,” “docked,” or “lacking a point,” referring to the turtle’s smooth carapace, which lacks the spiny or keeled projections seen in related species.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Armless Trionyx (Trionyx muticus: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.); Leathery Turtle (Amyda mutica: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Leathery Turtle (Amyda mutica: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Unarmed Trionyx (Amyda mutica: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Fresh-water Leather Turtle (Amyda mutica: Davis, N. S. Jr. and Frank L. Rice. 1883. Descriptive catalogue of North American batrachia and reptilia, found east of Mississippi River. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 1(5):71); Leather-back (Amyda mutica: Garman, H. 1892. A synopsis of the reptiles and amphibians of Illinois. Illinois Laboratory of Natural History Bulletin 3():215-403); Soft-shelled Turtle (Amyda mutica: Garman, H. 1892. A synopsis of the reptiles and amphibians of Illinois. Illinois Laboratory of Natural History Bulletin 3():215-403); Spineless Soft-shelled Turtle (Trionyx muticus: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources,. William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Leather Back Turtle (Amyda mutica: Rhoads, Samuel N. 1895. Contributions to the zoology of Tennessee. No. 1, Reptiles and amphibians. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 47():376-407); Leather Turtle (Amyda mutica: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Le sueur's Soft-shelled Turtle (Trionyx muticus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Spineless Soft-chelled Turtle (Trionyx muticus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1827 Sueur, Le, Ch. A. Note sur deux especes de tortues, du genre Trionyx de M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. [Note on two species of turtles, of the genus Trionyx by M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire.]. Museum of Natural History Paris 15:257- 268
1944 Stejneger, Leonhard H. Notes on the American softshelled turtles with special reference to Amyda agassizii. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (94):1-175
1951 Neill, Wilfred T. The taxonomy of North American soft-shelled turtles, genus Amyda. Publication of the Research Division of Ross Allens Reptile Institute 1(2):7-24
1959 Webb, Robert G. Description of a new softshell turtle from the southeastern United States. University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History 11(9):517-525
1973 Webb, Robert G. Trionyx muticus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (139):1-2
1975 Plummer, Michael V. and Hampton W. Shirer. Movement patterns in a river population of the soft-shell turtle, Trionyx muticus. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, The University of Kansas (43):1-26
1975 Fitch, Henry S. and Michael V. Plummer. A preliminary ecological study of the softshelled turtle Trionyx muticus in the Kansas River. Israel Journal of Zoology 24:28-42
1976 Plummer, Michael V. Population ecology of the softshell turtle, Trionyx muticus. Dissertation. University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 173pp.
1987 Meylan, Peter A. The phylogenetic relationships of Soft-shelled Turtles (Family Trionychidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 186(1):1-100
1990 Webb, Robert G. Trionyx. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (487):1-7

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Wednesday 13 May 2026 21:55 CT