Pig-Nose Turtle: Carettochelyidae

The pig-nose turtle usually lives in freshwater rivers, lakes, swamps, and other water bodies with shady shorelines. Sometimes it makes its home in saltier estuaries (EHS-chew-air-eez), or the wide parts at the lower end of rivers that link these water bodies to the ocean. They tend to prefer slower-moving and even unmoving waters that have soft bottoms of silt, or loose earth, on top of sand or gravel. The pig-nose turtle is sometimes also called Fly River turtle, because it is found in the Fly River in Papua, New Guinea. Scientists once thought the turtle lived only in New Guinea, but ten of the turtles were discovered in Australia's Daly River in 1970. They later were also found in the Alligator River system of Australia about 240 miles (386 kilometers) from the Daly River site, as well as other places in northern Australia.