Mata mata
Chelus fimbriata
— Where the name comes from
Chelus is the Greeks’ lyre-tortoise; fimbriata means “fringed”, for the flaps of skin hanging from its neck and head like torn weed. Matamata is a word from the Carib languages of Guiana, and the name is odd enough to have entered every European language exactly as it stands.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Turtles and tortoises
- Habitat
- Still blackwater, swamps, slow forest creeks
- Range
- The Amazon and Orinoco basins
- Size
- 40–45 cm of carapace, 15 kg
- Diet
- Fish, swallowed whole
- Lifespan
- 40 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It looks like a rotting leaf among other rotting leaves.
- 02
It has a long neck and a snout drawn out into a little tube for breathing.
- 03
It neither chews nor bites: it has practically no teeth.
— What sets it apart
It does not hunt: it inhales. When a fish passes in front of it the turtle snaps its mouth open and expands its throat, and the pressure drop sucks in water and prey in a fiftieth of a second — too fast for the human eye without slow motion. Then it closes, lets the water out at the sides and swallows. Everything else about the animal — the fringes, the lumpy shell, the hours of stillness — exists only to make sure that fish comes past.
