Classification of the Common Snap Turtle

Family, Genus and Species

• The taxonomic name for the common snapping turtle is Chelydra serpentina. Serpentina denotes the individual species, or common snapping turtle, while Chelydra denotes the genus the species belongs to. A genus constitutes a grouping of species with common characteristics, habits and genetic lineage. The Chelydra genus comprises nothing but snapping turtles. The same holds true for the family to which the genus belongs, Chelydridae, known as the snapping turtle family. A family constitutes a grouping of similar genera.

Kingdom, Phylum and More

• The common snapping turtle belongs to the Animalia, or animal, kingdom. Because the common snapping turtle possesses a rigid skeleton with a spinal column, it belongs to the phylum Chordata and the subphylum Vertebrata. The two final categories of taxonomical classification, class and order, further indicate the biological nature of the snapping turtle. The animal belongs to the Reptilia class, designating it a reptile, and the Testudines order, which contains all turtles and tortoises. Carlus Linnaeus classified common snapping turtles as such in 1758.

Feeding Habit

• Northern State University zoologist Donna Graham classifies the common snapping turtle as a predator alternately displaying aggressive and passive predatory behavior. In some instances, the feeding behavior of the turtle sees the animal using its mud-colored and algae-coated skin to hide from prey and attack unsuspecting victims such as crayfish, snails, frogs and toads. In other instances, the common snapping turtle aggressively attacks, kills and eats toads, snakes, fish and small mammals. Turtles also eat carrion and bird eggs. When threatened, snapping turtles prove especially aggressive, lunging at and attacking perceived threats.

Living Habit

• The United States Geological Survey classifies the common snapping turtle as highly aquatic. Unlike other turtle species, snapping turtles rarely emerge from the water to bask on land. Rather, the common snapping turtle basks on the surface of the water and makes its dwelling underneath the water to avoid having to leave the safety of its pond, lake, river, sewage ditch or other body of water to access its home. Snapping turtles hibernate during the winter, though express extreme cold hardiness in northern regions, where they are sometimes sighted active beneath the ice of frozen surfaces of bodies of water.