Photo of the Day 17 April 2008


Baby Alligator Snapping Turtle, Florida, 1999
Photograph by George Grall
A baby alligator snapping turtle in a Florida swamp perches on the outsize skull of a record-breaking ancestor. At its largest, the monstrous reptile weighed a whopping 250 pounds (113 kilograms). With its spiked shell, beaklike jaws, and thick, scaled tail, this species is often referred to as the "dinosaur of the turtle world."