Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Moore, Jon

Abstract

The diamondback terrapin ( Malaclemys terrapin ) is the only exclusively estuarine turtle. Terrapins live in coastal mangroves and salt marshes ranging from Massachusetts to Texas. While previous studies have documented the diet of terrapins in temperate salt marshes, the diet of the Florida East Coast terrapin subspecies ( M. terrapin tequesta) living in mangrove habitats is largely unknown. Other diamondback subspecies feed on a variety of prey categories, with plants, gastropods, and bivalves being the most dominant, depending on the subspecies. For my thesis research, I examined the diet of M. terrapin tequesta from the Indian River Lagoon by analyzing 13 terrapin fecal samples. The remains of decapod crustaceans occurred in all 13 samples and made up 96.3% of the fecal mass; a small amount of vegetation, bivalves, gastropods, insects, and debris also occurred in many of the samples. This is the only study to find crustaceans to be the dominant food of a terrapin subspecies. This difference probably relates to preferred prey availability in mangrove habitats.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

33 p.

Identifier

FA00003726

Download

Share

COinS