It’s Photo Hunt time, peeps and this week’s theme is SMELLY.
I couldn’t think of a “smelly” picture when I dropped by TNChick’s site to check the theme for this week, but when I got to bed at night, an idea came to me. Just like that *snaps fingers* And knowing that I would have something to share with you guys, I went to bed a happy girl 
Now, the following picture shows a river terrapin hatchling which was found dead in its shell. Well, carcasses are usually smelly, aren’t they?!
River terrapin eggs are oblong in shape, and once laid, the eggs would need to be incubated for about 60-80 days. During the incubation period, the fertilized egg would gradually form an embryo, then a fetus before the hatchling comes out of its shell. The egg yolk provides most of the needed nutrients during the developmental stages.
But how did a fetus die in the shell?
From a few hours after the egg is laid until the last trimester, the embryo will start to form. During this stage, it is very important to cease handling the egg because any “wrong” movement will result in the egg yolk suffocating the developing embryo. Which was possibly why this particular hatchling did not make it.
So when we excavated the styrofoam boxes in which the eggs were incubated, we found some dead terrapins that that did not hatch successfully. And my, these rotten eggs were very smelly, and it was only a matter of a few minutes before the flies started to feast on them!
More more posts on the river terrapins:
- An introduction to a rare species of river terrapin
- What does empty terrapin egg shells look like?
- How to differentiate between a river terrapin and a painted terrapin
If you think this post might benefit other bloggers:
:-( Poor terrapin, looks so innocent, like it is just taking a nap.
Have a great weekend, Pelf.
sigh… it almost make it to this world ya know.
just a little bit more.
Pelf!!! you gotta do ur best to protect these little babies ok!
Hey, the hatchling’s “chest” looks like tofu. Quite sad to see something like this.
Kelwin’s latest blog post: Yat Yi Sam Sei
A lovely, informational post. It’’s a shame that it died. It is beautiful.
Andrée’s latest blog post: Photo Hunters: Smelly Daisy
Awwwwww…it’s so cute, poor fella…
The shell is just too small for a growing embryo and the egg yolk. Thanks for all the info and the links. You got my daughter really interested with terrapins.
Lynn’s latest blog post: Photo Hunt 37: Smelly
oh so sad for that little Donnatello look alike..that’s really smelly…nice entry..happy weekend!
wow, how interesting!! great take on this weeks theme.
And Miles To Go….’s latest blog post: Photo Hunters (#20)–Smelly
FBI: Freeze!! FBI here!
Terrapin: Ouh, OK. Let me pretend to be dead and scare his pants off!!
**Note: Actually I wanted to post dead bodies too, but that’s too disgusting. Heheee Have a great day!!
Pelfy’s latest blog post: Photo hunt - Smelly
Oh dear, what a sad sad photo :-(
Poor little terrapin.
So sad that it died in its shell. 
My smelly photo.
Dragonheart’s latest blog post: Photo Hunters: Smelly
Great shot and accompanying story. Thanks.
SnoopyTheGoon’s latest blog post: Photohunt: Smelly
What a great smelly!
Your photo made me think back to our chickens. We used an incubator to hatch some of the eggs and boy did they get smelly when they did not hatch. I have not so fond memories of stepping on a very large rotten goose egg when we were outside playing. We had them also.
Opal Tribble’s latest blog post: PhotoHunters: Smelly
Interesting information. I feel sorry about the little terrapin.
Diana13’s latest blog post: Ad revenue sharing forums
WOW! It looks so alive somehow! I’m glad you shared this with us. My No.1 asked why it was sleeping and it gave me a chance to explain what ‘dead’ was.
Thanks again.
mott’s latest blog post: “smelly”
what do you guys do with them?
Bernard, we preserve the good ones in glass containers for future use, e.g. during exhibitions and road shows. Some really rotten ones are buried.