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Morning,

I have two Yellow Mud Turtles, Kinosternon Flavescens. I've read a couple of references (including Russ Gurley) that say that only the the male of this species possesses a tail spur. Is anyone able to confirm this?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, that is right.
When I get home tonight, I can look up a reference on this species, and post it too you.
Regards
Paul

Thanks, much appreciated. All the usual resources, Turtles of the world, ATP don't mention the tail spur as a sexual difference in this species. THere is a picture of a female on ATP and I can't see a spur, its not totally clear though. I've bought a few Herpetologica articles on Yellow Mud's from JSTOR, I know these are heavy scientic articles and I've only scanned them so far but the phrase "whopping great spike" does not crop up once when discussing sexual identification.