Mud turtle
Lissemys ceylonensis (Gray, 1856)
Status not recordedturtles and tortoises
The mud turtle (Lissemys ceylonensis) is a species in the family Trionychidae, order Testudines. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Sri Lanka.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the mud turtle
- Weight
- up to 5.01 kg
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Litters or clutches a year
- 2
- Reproduction
- Eggs
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the mud turtle live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The mud turtle is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the mud turtle endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the mud turtle classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderTestudines
- familyTrionychidae
- genusLissemys
- SpeciesLissemys ceylonensis (Gray, 1856)
Synonyms Emyda ceylonensis
Other names and names in other languages (15)
- Soft-shell terrapinEnglish
- Sri Lankan flapshell turtleEnglish
- سلحفاة رفرافية الدرقة السريلانكيةArabic
- Srilankansk KlapblødskildpaddeDanish
- Sri Lanka-WeichschildkröteGerman
- Tortuga de caparazón blando de Sri LankaSpanish
- Trionyx à clapet du Sri LankaFrench
- ceyloni leffentyűsteknősHungarian
- Šrilankinis minkštavėžlisLithuanian
- Kiri IbbaSinhala
- Pal AamaiTamil
- ตะพาบหับThai
- 斯里蘭卡緣板鱉Chinese
- Sri-Lanka-WeichschildkröteGerman
- කිරි ඉබ්බාSinhala
Relatives of the mud turtle
Other species in the same genus Lissemys.
Indian flapshell turtle
Lissemys punctata
Burmese flapshell turtle
Lissemys scutata
CompareMud turtle vs Indian flapshell turtleMud turtle vs Burmese flapshell turtle
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
Where does the mud turtle live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the mud turtle for 1 country: Sri Lanka. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
What kind of animal is the mud turtle?
The mud turtle (Lissemys ceylonensis) belongs to the family Trionychidae in the order Testudines.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AnimalTraits: a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size · CC0 1.0 · 1.0.7
Herberstein, M.E., McLean, D.J., Lowe, E. et al. (2022) AnimalTraits: a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size. Scientific Data 9: 265. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01364-9. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6468938 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - Palmer Archipelago penguin measurements (Palmer Station LTER) · CC0 1.0 · 0.1.0
Gorman, K.B., Williams, T.D. & Fraser, W.R. (2014) Ecological sexual dimorphism and environmental variability within a community of Antarctic penguins (genus Pygoscelis). PLoS ONE 9(3): e90081. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090081. Data: Palmer Station Antarctica LTER, via Horst, A.M., Hill, A.P. & Gorman, K.B. (2020) palmerpenguins. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3960218 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision). - Sex-specific median life expectancies from ex situ populations for 330 animal species · CC BY 4.0 · 2018-07
Che-Castaldo, J.P., Byrne, A., Perišin, K. & Faust, L.J. (2019) Sex-specific median life expectancies from ex situ populations for 330 animal species. Scientific Data 6: 190019. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2019.19. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7539968.v1
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Mud turtle (Lissemys ceylonensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/mud-turtle
“Mud turtle (Lissemys ceylonensis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/mud-turtle.
@misc{mud_turtle_2026,
title = {Mud turtle (Lissemys ceylonensis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/mud-turtle},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}