The Turtle with a Lure in Its Mouth: teacher key

Alligator Snapping Turtles, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. Scientists have studied the alligator snapping turtle's lure, its tracks through rivers and its genes. Whether one of its newly named species is separate is still argued, and Flint River counts show how slowly its numbers recover.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did the 2024 listing rule apply to?
   • All alligator snapping turtles
   • Only the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle species (answer)
   • Only turtles in Georgia
2. In the 2014 to 2015 Flint River survey, which turtles did researchers catch nearly twice as many of as adults?
   • Immature turtles (answer)
   • Adult males
   • Hatchlings in nests
3. What did Flint River researchers find after 22 years of protection from commercial harvest?
   • The population had not increased (answer)
   • The population had doubled
   • The population had left the river
4. What do scientists still contest?
   • Whether the turtle has a lure
   • Whether Macrochelys apalachicolae is a separate species (answer)
   • Whether the turtle breathes air
5. Delayed maturity and low reproduction may slow recovery. What fits with this idea?
   • The turtles are old enough to have young at 11 to 13 years of age (answer)
   • The turtles lay thousands of eggs each month
   • The turtles reach maturity in one year

Words

• lingual: of the tongue
• subpopulations: smaller local groups
• lineages: family lines
• telemetry: remote tracking
• clutch: a nest's eggs