Asian Giant Softshell Turtle Pelochelys cantorii. Original artwork from Astonishing animals.

2003.
Watercolour and gouache on Arches paper, 550 x 1140mm, mounted but not framed, signed and dated by artist.

Page 158 (Pelochelys cantori)
We think of turtles and tortoises as creatures encased in hard shells, but there is one group, known as the family Trionychidae, that is not so protected. Their shells are instead flexible and leathery in texture. The Asian giant softshell turtle is the giant of this family, growing to a metre across - the size of an average sea turtle - and paradoxically its large size has impeded studies of it, for very few scientists have been willing to lug specimens to museums. As a result, we are still uncertain as to how many species of giant softshell turtles there are. Variability in appearance throughout their vast range in eastern and southern Asia, however, suggests that what was thought of as a single species may in fact be many.
Softshell turtles will eat almost anything - those living in the Ganges feed on the human
corpses that are thrown into the river-and they thrive in grossly polluted rivers. Some even live in the putrid urban canals of cities such as Canton and Jakarta. Much about this creature remains enigmatic. Scientists speculate that it can stay submerged for extended periods by absorbing oxygen through some part of its body, and indeed a distant relative in Australia can `breathe' through its rectum. And then there is its strange head, with its wrinkled neck and pig-like nasal appendage, which may be to allow the creature to breathe without bringing its head to the surface. Fundamental to its mystery, however, is why it has dispensed with the protection of a hard shell.