Interesting
.
Clearly it is either a Hawksbill or Green as the first costal scutes (blue here) do not touch the nuchal acute (white in photo).
I have always understood that the shape of the vertebral scutes (in red here) was I pretty diagnostic feature in separating Green and Hawksbill. In Greens in my experience, the vertebral scutes are generally almost rectangular and in Hawksbill they are diamond-shaped. The scutes are as you say generally overlapping in Hawksbills but this feature is apparently less prominent in fully adult individuals. If had been a Hawkbill its would have been a pretty big one.
What is diagnostic as you say is a good view of the head. But from looking at a blown-up image I suspect that it does have the diagnostic pattern of a Green (with just one pair of prefrontal scales and not 2) and the apparent presence of just one claw on the flipper pretty much clinches it as a Green.
Like most NZers most I have learned about turtles has come from reading and I am always keen to learn more...
Cheers Paul
- Turtle.JPG (62.04 KiB) Viewed 2776 times