The 2 dark lines that define this subspecies are easily seen on this young example.
Although softshelled turtles hadn’t figured into our stop on the Pascagoula River, Jake and I were both delighted when we saw a female Gulf Coast spiny softshell, Apalone spinifera aspera, sunning on a snag near the shore. That it was a female was obvious from the heavily pigmented carapace. Not large as females go—the record is about 17 ½”—this female was about 9 inches in shell length. The much smaller males seem to top out at about 8 ½ “ carapace length and are often 1 or 2” smaller.

This subspecies ranges from eNC to seLA. It is found in extreme nFL, where I have seen it in the rivers in the Apalachicola National Forest.

This subspecies differs from all other subspecies of Apalone spinifera in having 2 (rather than just one) lines paralleling the rear of the carapace. Very visible in young example and males, the lines may be difficult to see on heavily pigmented adult females.