THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Kinosternidae  

Yellow Mud Turtle
Kinosternon flavescens (Agassiz, 1857)
KY-no-ster-non — fluh-VES-ens

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

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Open icons indicate questionable records; click on a marker to view details.
Occurrences:; 7,015 Total; 5,667 Museum; 1,348 Other
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Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.97 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona Colorado Illinois Iowa Kansas Missouri Nebraska New Mexico Oklahoma Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its coloration.
Kinosternon — From Greek: kineo (κινέω) meaning “to move”; sternon (στέρνον) meaning “chest”. So, Kinosternon means: “Moving chest”. This may refer to the turtle’s ability to move its amteropr plastron (the chest part of the shell).
flavescens — From Latin flavescens, meaning “yellowish” or “becoming yellow”.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Yellowish Mud Turtle (Platythyra flavescens: Cooper, James G. 1869. The fauna of California and its geographical distribution. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 4():61-81); Yellow Mud Turtle (Cinosternum flavescens: 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); Yellow Mud Turtle (Kinosternon flavescens: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Yellow-necked Mud Turtle (Kinosternon flavescens: Denburgh, Van, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Yellow Mud Turtle (Kinosternon flavescens: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Yellow Mud Turtle (Kinosternon flavescens flavescens: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Illinois Yellow Mud Turtle (Kinosternon flavescens spooneri: 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:
1857 Agassiz, Louis. Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. Volume 1. Little, Brown & Company, Boston, Massachusets. 452pp.
1951 Smith, Philip W. A new frog and a new turtle from the western Illinois Sand Prairies. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 9:189-199
1978 Brown, Lauren E. and Moll, D. A report on the status of the nearly extinct Illinois mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens spooneri Smith 1951) with recommendations for its conservation. Report to Office of Endangered Species, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,, Washington, D. C.. pp.
1978 Seidel, Michael E. Kinosternon flavescens. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (216):1-4
1979 Brown, Lauren and Don Moll. The status of the nearly extinct Illinois mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens spooneri Smith 1951) with recommendations for its conservation. Milwaukee Public Museum, Special publications in Biology and Geology 3:49
1980 Bickham, J. W. & Gallaway, B. J. A status report on studies of the taxonomy of the Illinois mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens spooneri) with supplementary notes on its distribution and ecology. LGL Ecological Research Associates., Bryan, Texas,. pp.
1982 Dodd, C. Kenneth, Jr. A controversy surrounding an endangered species listing: The case of the Illinois mud turtle. Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service 55:1-22
1982 Houseal, T. W., J. W. Bickham, and M. D. Springer. Geographic variation in the Yellow Mud Turtle, Kinosternon flavescens. Copeia 1982(3):567-580
1983 Dodd, C. Kenneth. A review of the status of the Illinois mud turtle Kinosternon flavescens spooneri Smith. Biological Conservation 27:141-156
1984 Bickham, J. W. and Springer, M. D. and Gallaway, B. J. Distributional survey of the Yellow Mud Turtle (Kinosternon flavescens) in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri: A proposed endangered species. Southwestern Naturalist 29(1):123-132
1984 Berry, James F. and Cynthia M. Berry. A re-analysis of geographic variation and systematics in the Yellow Mud Turtle Kinosternon flavescens (Agassiz). Annals of the Carnegie Museum 53(7):185-206
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles. Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
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 Serb, Jeanne M., C. A. Phillips, and John B. Iverson. Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of Kinosternon flavescens based on complete mitochondrial control region sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 18:149-162
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2023 Iverson, John B. and James L. Christiansen. Kinosternon flavescens (Agassiz 1857) – Yellow Mud Turtle, Casquito Amarillo. v1.202. Chelonian Research Monographs 5(17):121.1–26

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Sunday 26 July 2026 11:59 CT