Is it a rock?
An alien?
No! It’s a matamata!
A whatawhata?
Never heard of them? That’s because they’re rare. Colombian officials recently stopped an illegal shipment of 2,200 Matamata turtles using a rapid DNA testing toolkit developed by FIU researchers. Here’s a few things you never knew you wanted to know about the planet’s strangest turtle.
- Some say their shells look like a space rock, but to a pesky predator, the array of bumpy brown, black, gray and green is easily mistaken for a piece of bark in the water. No one wants to eat that, making matamatas masters of camouflage.
- They have horrible eyesight – Like humans, they rely on all their senses to get through the day.
- They can’t chew. These carnivorous bottom feeders sit silently still. When invertebrates and small fish are near, they vacuum them up and snap their mouths shut. Dinner is served.
- It has flaps of skin and a horn on its snout – Yup, we’re still talking about a turtle. The nerves in the flaps of skin respond to vibration, alerting them of their predators.
- They can weigh as much as 33 pounds, which puts them in the same weight class as the average 4-year-old kid!
Learn more about the Matamata turtle here.
Visit @FIUCASE on Instagram and Twitter and let us know your Matamata mood.
