Prehistoric Period
Kinosternon bourreti, the 3-Striped Mud Turtle, is an ancient member of the Kinosternidae family with a long and storied evolutionary history. Although the modern-day Kinosternon bourreti did not exist in the ancient era, descendents of this species existed. The fossil record of this species and its family, Kinosternidae, goes all the way back to the Cretaceous era, which occurred between 145 and 66 million years ago.
Several locations in modern-day North America were home to kinosternid turtles during the Cretaceous period. Those ancient turtles belonged to a large and varied family of freshwater turtles that lived in freshwater habitats all over the world. The omnivorous diet and hard, dome-shaped shells of kinosternids are evolutionary adaptations that most likely evolved in reaction to the ecological roles these creatures filled in ancient times.
Kinosternon bourreti's predecessors likely had a diet that consisted of both plants and animals, and a body shape that was well-suited to living in slow-moving waters. Modern kinosternids are the result of millions of years of evolution in which these turtles specialized and diversified in response to shifting habitats and climates. Kinosternon bourreti's three-striped carapace and other distinguishing characteristics are products of its lengthy evolutionary history.
The kinosternid turtles, according to fossils, went through a period of intense diversification in the Cenozoic, especially in the Paleogene and Neogene, when the dinosaurs became extinct. During the period between 66 million and 2.6 million years ago, several species of contemporary turtles proliferated as they adapted to different environments. During this period, the kinosternids, which would include Kinosternon bourreti's ancestors, likely diversified and expanded into other freshwater environments.
The fossil record does not provide a clear indication of when the lineage that ultimately gave rise to Kinosternon bourreti diverged. Nonetheless, the current species probably arose as a subset of the kinosternid turtle radiation in response to shifting environmental circumstances and geographic ranges in Southeast Asia not long ago, during the last few million years, geologically speaking.
The fact that kinosternid turtles have been around for a long time shows how adaptable and resilient they are. Over the course of millions of years, these turtles have weathered many catastrophic extinctions as well as major shifts in climate and geography. Understanding the ecology, distribution, and conservation requirements of contemporary species such as the 3-Striped Mud Turtle requires some background on their evolutionary history.
