Also known as blue snapping turtle or whitebait, it is a member of the Trionychidae family of Testudoformes order. Its Latin scientific name is Pelochelys bibroni, and the English name is Bibron's Soft-shelled Turtle.
It is the largest variety of the Turtle family. Its carapace is 30 to 47 centimeters long and 30 to 41 centimeters wide. Its dorsal carapace is round, covered with soft keratin skin, which is gray and flat, with underdeveloped calipash. It has a small head with short proboscis, on the forepart of which there are nostrils. Its four limbs have strong webs and the three inside toes have claws. Its tail is short, seldom stretching outside the calipash. Its head and collum can be entirely withdrawn into the shell while the four limbs cannot. Its head is in dust color mixed with irregular pale stripes. Its jaw is yellowish white and belly white. Its pupils are in the shape of oval.
Living in rivers and lakes and feeding on aquatic animals, it is good at digging silt. It has been home domesticated since ancient times in China. Because its carapace and osteone can be used as medical material, and its flesh tastes delicious, it was once excessively captured and killed, resulting in sharp reduction in quantity. At present, there are very few wild soft-shelled turtles, mainly distributed in Yunnan, Hainan, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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