Gibba turtle
Amazing fact
The gibba turtle detects prey through vibrations sensed by its large eardrum and the fringes of scales on its legs.
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The gibba turtle detects prey through vibrations sensed by its large eardrum and the fringes of scales on its legs.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Gibba turtle
- Scientific name
- Mesoclemmys gibba
- Japanese name
- ヒメカエルガメ
- Group
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Testudines
- Family
- Chelidae
- Genus
- Mesoclemmys
As "hime" (little) in its Japanese name suggests, it is a small kind of toad-headed turtle.
Young ones have dark blotches on the head, and the whole turtle turns black as it grows up.
How the Gibba turtle lives
It is mainly active at night. It eats fruit, tadpoles, fish and invertebrates. It lives in water and favors the bottom of water bodies. At the end of the rainy season, it may lay eggs in a shallow nest covered with leaves.
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da AmazôniaZoo Bioparque AmaruBasic data
- Range
- Northwestern to northern South America
Where the Gibba turtle has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ヒメカエルガメ
- 简体中文
- 棱背蟾龟
- 繁體中文
- 稜背蟾龜
- Français
- Tortue bossue
- Deutsch
- Buckelschildkröte
- Português (Brasil)
- Cágado-de-poças-da-floresta
- Русский
- Выпуклая черепаха
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ヒメカエルガメChecked: 2026-11-04
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia — Mesoclemmys gibbaChecked: 2026-11-07
- Zoo Bioparque Amaru — Tortuga hediondaChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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