Yucatán snapping turtle
Chelydra rossignonii (Bocourt, 1868)
Status not recordedturtles and tortoises
The yucatán snapping turtle (Chelydra rossignonii) is a species in the family Chelydridae, order Testudines. Recorded adults weigh 3.88 kg to 7.71 kg and live up to 39.9 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Mexico.
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Quick facts about the yucatán snapping turtle
- Weight
- 3.88 kg – 7.71 kg
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 39.9 years
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 47 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetland
- Egg incubation
- 77.5 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 26.5
- Age at maturity
- 6 years – 16 years
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1
- Reproduction
- Eggs
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)
- Lifestyle
- Aquatic
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the yucatán snapping 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 yucatán snapping turtle is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the yucatán snapping 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 yucatán snapping turtle classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderTestudines
- familyChelydridae
- genusChelydra
- SpeciesChelydra rossignonii (Bocourt, 1868)
Synonyms Chelydra serpentina rosignonii, Emysaurus rossignonii
Other names and names in other languages (18)
- Central American snapping turtleEnglish
- سلحفاة نهاشة مكسيكيةArabic
- kajmanka středoamerickáCzech
- Centralamerikansk SnapskildpaddeDanish
- Yucatán-SchnappschildkröteGerman
- ServengueSpanish
- Chélydre serpentine d'Amérique centraleFrench
- közép-amerikai harapósteknősHungarian
- チュウベイカミツキガメJapanese
- 中美擬鱷龜Chinese
- سلاحف يوكاتان النهاشةArabic
- سلحفاة أمريكا الوسطى النهاشةArabic
- Mexikanische SchnappschildkröteGerman
- Mittelamerikanische SchnappschildkröteGerman
- ChiquiguaoSpanish
- Tortuga LagartoSpanish
- Tortuga mordedoraSpanish
- ZambundangoSpanish
Relatives of the yucatán snapping turtle
Other species in the same genus Chelydra.

Common snapping turtle
Chelydra serpentina
South American snapping turtle
Chelydra acutirostris
CompareYucatán snapping turtle vs Common snapping turtleYucatán snapping turtle vs South American snapping turtleYucatán snapping turtle vs Chelydra haydnmcphiei
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the yucatán snapping turtle?
An adult yucatán snapping turtle weighs 3.88 kg – 7.71 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the yucatán snapping turtle live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the yucatán snapping turtle for 1 country: Mexico. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
How long does the yucatán snapping turtle live?
The yucatán snapping turtle has a recorded lifespan of 39.9 years.
What kind of animal is the yucatán snapping turtle?
The yucatán snapping turtle (Chelydra rossignonii) belongs to the family Chelydridae in the order Testudines.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
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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 - 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
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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 - 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 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
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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
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Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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). Yucatán snapping turtle (Chelydra rossignonii). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/yucatan-snapping-turtle
“Yucatán snapping turtle (Chelydra rossignonii).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/yucatan-snapping-turtle.
@misc{yucatan_snapping_turtle_2026,
title = {Yucatán snapping turtle (Chelydra rossignonii)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/yucatan-snapping-turtle},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}