Carettochelys

Carettochelys is a genus of freshwater turtles whose only living member is the pig-nosed turtle, Carettochelys insculpta, a species native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea. The genus belongs to the family Carettochelyidae, a family that also contains many fossil species and whose closest relatives are the softshell turtles of the family Trionychidae. A fossil species of the genus, Carettochelys niahensis, is known from the Neogene of Borneo. The pig-nosed turtle is unlike any other freshwater turtle in its combination of traits: its feet are flippers, resembling those of marine turtles, and its nostrils sit at the end of a fleshy, pig-like snout. Unlike the softshell turtles, it keeps a domed bony carapace beneath its leathery skin and a solid plastron joined to the carapace by a strong bony bridge. It can reach about 70 to 75 centimetres in straight carapace length and more than 20 kilograms in weight.