Reptiles

Softshell Turtle

Trionychidae · also called softshell, pancake turtle

Endangered ↓ carnivoreomnivore Rivers & wetlands Coasts & shorelines

A softshell turtle looks like a mistake — a turtle that forgot to grow its shell. In place of the usual armoured dome it has a flat, leathery pancake edged with cartilage, and a long tubular snout it uses as a snorkel. It gave up the armour for speed and stealth, spends its life buried in river mud, and can breathe underwater well enough to skip surfacing all winter.

Overview

Softshell turtles are the family Trionychidae, around 30-plus species, in North America, Africa, and Asia. Their shell has no horny plates and a flexible cartilage rim, all covered in leathery skin, making them light and streamlined. Most are carnivores that ambush fish, crayfish, and snails from the sediment. They range from 45 cm North American species to the Yangtze giant softshell at over 1 m and 100 kg.

Snorkel and skin-breathing

The long upturned snout lets a buried turtle breathe with just its nose tip at the surface. Softshells also take much of their oxygen directly from the water — through the thin skin and blood-rich projections in the throat and cloaca — so a resting one can stay under for hours, and some overwinter buried under ice without surfacing at all.

Fast and hard-biting

With no heavy shell, a softshell is a quick swimmer and a surprisingly fast scrambler on land, and a big one strikes with a long neck and sharp hidden jaw edges.

Status

Softshell turtles are assessed as Endangered overall, trend decreasing — one of the most threatened turtle groups, with about half the species threatened. The North American spiny and smooth softshells are still common, but the Asian giants have collapsed from hunting for food and medicine, egg collection, dams, and pollution, and the Yangtze giant softshell is down to a single known male.

Softshell Turtle: common questions

Why does a softshell turtle have a soft shell?

It is a trade-off that favours speed and stealth over armour. A softshell turtle has lost the hard horny scutes and much of the bony plating that a typical turtle carries, keeping only a reduced bony disc surrounded by a flexible rim of cartilage, all covered in leathery skin. This makes the animal lighter, flatter, and much more hydrodynamic, so it is a faster swimmer and can bury itself flush into sand or mud, which is where it spends most of its time waiting to ambush prey. The cost is that it has little defence if actually caught, so softshells rely on hiding, a long fast neck, and a hard bite, and they are quicker to flee and quicker to lunge than hard-shelled turtles.

Can softshell turtles really breathe underwater?

To a large extent, yes, though they still have lungs and must surface periodically. Softshell turtles supplement lung breathing with several forms of aquatic gas exchange. Their thin, blood-rich skin absorbs oxygen directly from the water, and the lining of the throat and the cloaca carry finger-like projections packed with blood vessels that work like internal gills when the turtle pumps water in and out. Combined with a low metabolic rate, this lets a resting softshell stay submerged for hours in summer and, in some species, spend the whole winter buried in a river bed under ice without ever coming up for air.

Are softshell turtles dangerous to people?

Large ones can give a serious bite and should be handled with real care, if at all. A softshell turtle has a long, flexible, fast-striking neck that can reach much further back than people expect, and its jaws have sharp cutting edges hidden under fleshy lips, capable of a deep, painful wound and, in the giant Asian species, of taking off a finger. They are not aggressive toward swimmers and will flee, but a cornered or hooked softshell will lunge repeatedly. If you must move one, grip the very back of the shell or the tail base, well clear of the head, or better, leave it alone.

What happened to the Yangtze giant softshell turtle?

It became one of the most famous cases of a species pushed to the very brink. Once found through the Yangtze and Red River basins, the Yangtze giant softshell was reduced by hunting, the loss of its river habitat behind dams, sand mining, and pollution until only a handful of individuals were known, all elderly. Attempts to breed the last confirmed pair in a Chinese zoo failed, and when the female died in 2019 during an artificial insemination attempt, just one confirmed animal remained, an old male, along with reports of one or two possible wild individuals in Vietnam. Barring a surprise, the species is functionally extinct.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 10, 2026. Last updated September 10, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Trionychidae
Diet: Mostly animal prey ambushed from the sediment, including fish, crayfish, crabs, snails, aquatic insects, worms, amphibians, and the occasional small bird or mammal, with the larger species also scavenging carrion and some, such as the Asian species, eating fruit and aquatic plants
A shell without hard plates: A softshell turtle's carapace has no horny scutes and its outer edge is a flexible flap of cartilage, so the whole shell is covered in leathery skin, which makes the animal lighter and far more streamlined but leaves it more exposed and dependent on hiding and speed
A snout built as a snorkel: The long, tubular, upturned snout lets a buried softshell turtle poke just the tip of its nose to the surface to breathe without exposing its body, and the same snout carries a keen sense of smell for locating prey in murky water
They breathe underwater through skin and throat: Softshell turtles take up a large share of their oxygen directly from the water, across the thin skin and through blood-rich projections in the mouth and the cloaca, which lets them stay submerged for hours and overwinter buried in an oxygen-poor river bed without surfacing
Fast on land and in the water: Freed of a heavy shell, a softshell turtle is a strong, quick swimmer and can move surprisingly fast on land in a scrambling run, and a large one is powerful and will lunge and bite hard with sharp, hidden jaw edges and a long, striking neck
Some of the largest freshwater turtles: The Asian giant softshells are among the biggest freshwater turtles alive, with the Yangtze giant softshell exceeding 1 m of shell and 100 kg, and the narrow-headed and Cantor's giant softshells nearly as large, while the North American species top out around 45 to 60 cm
A prized food, and a turtle in freefall: Softshell turtles are heavily eaten and farmed across East and Southeast Asia, where the Chinese softshell is one of the most farmed reptiles in the world, but this demand, along with dams and pollution, has driven several wild Asian species to the edge, with the Yangtze giant softshell down to a single known male after the last female died in 2019
Range: North America, Africa, and Asia, in rivers, large streams, lakes, oxbows, canals, marshes, and the brackish lower reaches of rivers and estuaries, favouring soft mud or sand bottoms in which to bury, with the family absent from South America, Europe, and Australia; several Asian species have also been introduced to Hawaii and elsewhere.
Conservation status: Endangered ↓ ≈ Assessed species by species, and softshell turtles are among the most threatened turtle groups, with roughly half of the 30-plus species listed as threatened and several Critically Endangered; the North American spiny and smooth softshells remain reasonably common, but the Asian giant species have collapsed from hunting for food and traditional medicine, egg collection, dam building, sand mining, and river pollution, and the Yangtze giant softshell is effectively functionally extinct in the wild