THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Kinosternidae  

Striped Mud Turtle
Kinosternon baurii (Garman, 1891)
KY-no-ster-non — BOW-ree-eye

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: 2023.12.13.09.25.18)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.29 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Delaware Florida Georgia Maryland North Carolina South Carolina Virginia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named in honor of a paleontologist.
Kinosternon — Greek kinein = “to move” + sternon = “chest” — “moving chest,” likely referring to the hinged plastron.
baurii — Patronym honoring George H. Baur (1859–1898), a foundational figure in American herpetology and reptile paleontology. His research, though cut short by early death, helped set the stage for modern taxonomic and evolutionary studies of reptiles—particularly turtles and squamates.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Striped Mud Turtle (Kinosternon bauri: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Striped Mud Turtle (Kinosternon bauri bauri: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Paradise Key Mud Turtle (Kinosternon bauri palmarum: 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:
1891 Garman, Samuel. On a tortoise found in Florida and Cuba, Cinosternon baurii. Bulletin of the Essex Institute 23:141-144
1974 Ernst, Carl H. Kinosternon baurii. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (161):1-2
1983 Lamb, T. The striped mud turtle (Kinosternon bauri) in South Carolina, a confirmation through multivariate character analysis. Herpetologica 39(4):383-390
1983 Lamb, T. On the problematic identification of Kinosternon (Testudines: Kinosternidae) in Georgia, with new state localities for Kinosternon bauri. Georgia Journal of Science 41(4):115-120
1990 Lamb, Trip and John E. Lovich. Morphometric validation of the striped mud turtle (Kinosternon baurii) in the Carolinas and Virginia. Copeia 1990(3):613-618
1995 Lovich, Jeffrey E. and Trip Lamb. Morphometric similarity between the turtles Kinosternon subrubrum hippocrepis and K. baurii. Journal of Herpetology 29(4):621-624
1997 Starkey, David E. Molecular systematics and biogeography of the New World turtle genera Trachemys and Kinosternon. Dissertation. Texas A&M, College Station, Texas.. 149pp.
2001 Karl, Stephen A. and Dawn S. Wilson. Phylogeography and systematics of the mud turtle, Kinosternon baurii. Copeia 2001(3):797-801

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:54 CT