Painted Turtle

Open encyclopedia reference

The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is North America's most widespread native turtle, with a rich evolutionary history that stretches back 15 million years. As resilient survivors belonging to the pond turtle family Emydidae, these turtles adapted creatively to the planet's changing climate. During the last Ice Age, they split into distinct groups and evolved into three regionally unique subspecies: the Eastern painted turtle (found along the Atlantic coast), the Midland painted turtle (living around the Great Lakes), and the Western painted turtle (the largest group, spanning the west coast and Canada). Scientists still debate whether a fourth group, the Southern painted turtle, is its own separate species or another subspecies. Because they are highly adaptable and widely distributed across fresh waters from Canada to Mexico, their conservation status is listed as Least Concern, meaning they are currently thriving in the wild. It lives in relatively slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They have been shown to prefer large wetlands with long periods of inundation and emergent vegetation.

Wikipedia contributors, Painted turtle; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:09:14.007530+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Chrysemys picta (Schneider, 1783)

Name authority

(Schneider, 1783)

Common name

Painted Turtle

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Testudines

Family

Emydidae

Genus

Chrysemys

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
9. orderTestudines Batsch, 1788
10. suborderCryptodira
11. superfamilyTestudinoidea
12. familyEmydidae
13. genusChrysemys
14. speciesChrysemys picta (Schneider, 1783)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Chrysemys. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 41 records assigned to Emydidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Chrysemys&species=picta Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5YKRV. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.