America’s most enigmatic angler. Alligator snapping turtles are equipped with a worm-like attachment on their tongue area, known as a “lingual lure”. They use this to lure in small fish, crayfish, and other aquatic prey. In this region, this seems to be primarily used with most efficiency as hatchlings and juveniles, as the adults become focused on a durophagous (eating hard stuff) diet of mollusks and turtles. It’s easy to see how this turtle can lay on a muddy bottom among logs and stumps, wig

Rare, giant find: Mississippi man catches 70-pound alligator snapping turtle

The great alligator snapping turtle.