For the second time in just three months, the Indian Forest Service announced the discovery of a golden-shelled turtle.
Like a piece of cheese, a lump of butter, or the yolk of an egg, this savory creature with a bright yellow shell, head and limbs looks too good to eat – and quickly became an internet sensation.
While such color distortions are rare in nature, this strange phenomenon is more common than most people think.
Today a Yellow Turtle was rescued from a Pond in Burdwan, WB. It's one kind of a rarely occuring Flapshell Turtle. @ParveenKaswan @SanthoshaGubbi @RandeepHooda @rameshpandeyifs pic.twitter.com/enTyNAkxmP
– Debashish Sharma, IFS (@deva_iitkgp) October 27, 2020
The yellow Indian turtle (Lissemys punctata) – usually brown with yellow spots and a creamy white underside – have been found several times over the years in various parts of South Asia, where it is one of the most common species of aquatic turtle.
A genetic abnormality does not occur often, but when it does, it tends to stand out.
In 1997, a turtle with a uniformly yellow body and pink eyes was discovered in Gujarat on the west coast of India, and other similar specimens are said to have been found in Myanmar and Bangladesh, although the data has not been published.
A rare yellow turtle was spotted & rescued in Balasore, Odisha yesterday.
Most probably it was an albino. One such aberration was recorded by locals in Sindh few years back. pic.twitter.com/ZHAN8bVccU
– Susanta Nanda IFS (@ susantananda3) July 20, 2020
This summer, a golden turtle was photographed in Odisha, an eastern Indian state, and when it was tweeted, an Indian biologist said he had found three of them a year earlier.
Although there is little information about recent findings, it is believed that this phenomenon is caused by a lack of body pigmentation.
This is similar to pure albinism, a genetic disorder that causes the body to be completely pigmented, but instead of being completely white, in some cases the yellow pteridine pigments may remain and dominate the color.
This is known as chromatic leucism, and among turtles, it can produce the most 'dazzling' color variations among turtles, according to researchers.
Sources: Photo: (Debashish Sharma / Twitter)
