There’s a weird old turtle creeping in Mary River, South-East Queensland, Australia. It’s been to a salon for a Mohawk hairstyle maybe years ago. Don’t be shocked by its spiky green hair – it’s growing algae. The photo is captured by an amateur photographer, Chris Van Wyk. This kind of turtle is one of the endangered species and one of the fastest swimming turtles in history.

Mary River Turtles were popular pets during the late 1960’s as they were also called the Penny Turtle” or the “Pet shop Turtle”. They are short-necked, elongated creatures with oval shaped shell. They have beautiful color patterns with reddish dark brown to almost black shell and grayish under body. They have a unique feature of identified long tails and long whiskers under their jaws. They also breathe in their “cloaca”, an opening with air bladders that can absorb water to air. This is called “cloacal respiration”, the reason why they live in shallow waters to survive. 

Mary River Turtle hatch-ling

image by - Sunshine Coast Daily

They are listed in the top 25 endangered species in the world.