Field Guide

Reptiles and Amphibians

Showing 1 - 10 of 115 results
Media
Image of a red-eared slider
Species Types
Scientific Name
Trachemys scripta elegans
Description
The red-eared slider is an attractive aquatic turtle with yellow pinstripes and red ears. It is commonly seen basking on logs or rocks and occurs statewide, except for a few northern counties.
Media
Photo of a four-toed salamander on a mossy rock.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Hemidactylium scutatum
Description
A glacial relict in Missouri’s eastern Ozarks, the four-toed salamander lives among mosses in heavily forested streams and creeks and sinkhole ponds. It has a thick, round tail that is constricted at its base. There are four toes on each limb.
Media
Photo of a western slimy salamander
Species Types
Scientific Name
Plethodon albagula
Description
The western slimy salamander is a black to blue-black salamander irregularly marked with silvery flecks. It occurs in the Ozark Highlands and the Lincoln Hills north of the Missouri River. True to its name, it secretes a thick substance that sticks to skin like glue.
Media
A black salamander with dark silver bands on its tail walks on a concrete pad.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Ambystoma opacum
Description
The marbled salamander is a small, stout salamander with silvery, white, or gray saddle-shaped markings on its body from head to tail. They occur in the southeastern half of the state and are seldom encountered except during the autumn breeding season.
Media
Image of a ringed salamander
Species Types
Scientific Name
Ambystoma annulatum
Description
The ringed salamander is secretive, spending most of its time under logs or rocks or in burrows. Its “rings” don’t completely encircle its body. Occurs in the southwestern and central Missouri Ozarks, and in the river hills of the Missouri River in eastern Missouri.
Media
Image of a spotted salamander
Species Types
Scientific Name
Ambystoma maculatum
Description
The spotted salamander is one of Missouri's six species of mole salamanders. It is slate black with two irregular rows of rounded yellow spots from the head onto the tail. It occurs in forests in the southern two-thirds of the state.
Media
Image of a northern cottonmouth
Species Types
Scientific Name
Agkistrodon piscivorus
Description
The cottonmouth is named for the cotton-white lining of its mouth, which it opens widely when alarmed. This dangerously venomous, semiaquatic snake occurs in the southeastern corner of Missouri, with a spotty distribution in the Ozark Region.
Media
Image of a western pygmy rattlesnake
Species Types
Scientific Name
Sistrurus miliarius streckeri
Description
The western pygmy rattlesnake is small and colorful, with a slender tail and tiny rattle. Its vibrating rattle is a faint buzz that sounds like a grasshopper. In Missouri, it occurs in the eastern Ozarks and in some counties bordering Arkansas.
Media
Red River mudpuppy resting on a gravel stream bottom
Species Types
Scientific Name
Necturus maculosus maculosus
Description
Mudpuppies are aquatic salamanders that have plumelike external gills throughout their entire lives. They’re found in the southern half and along the eastern edge of Missouri.
Media
Eastern musk turtle (stinkpot)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Sternotherus odoratus
Description
The eastern musk turtle is one of the world’s smallest turtles. It has a dark, domed upper shell and reduced lower shell. It occurs along our Mississippi River counties and in the southern two-thirds of the state.
See Also

About Reptiles and Amphibians in Missouri

Missouri’s herptiles comprise 43 amphibians and 75 reptiles. Amphibians, including salamanders, toads, and frogs, are vertebrate animals that spend at least part of their life cycle in water. They usually have moist skin, lack scales or claws, and are ectothermal (cold-blooded), so they do not produce their own body heat the way birds and mammals do. Reptiles, including turtles, lizards, and snakes, are also vertebrates, and most are ectothermal, but unlike amphibians, reptiles have dry skin with scales, the ones with legs have claws, and they do not have to live part of their lives in water.