Giant Alligator Snapping Turtle Found In Russia's River

A mysterious creature with ridged skin, sharp claws, immensely powerful jaws and terrifying spikes was spotted on a beach in Siberia, Russia.

Scroll down to see the images and watch the video. Have you seen something like that before?The animal is believed to be an alligator snapping turtle, the heaviest freshwater turtle in the world, whose natural habitat is tropical waters of American southeastern states. How a prehistoric-looking turtle appeared on another continent more than 10, 000 kilometers away from its home remains unclear. First pictures of the reptile posted on social media sites were branded as fake by its users but then a video showing locals trying to move the turtle into the water appeared.

Anastasia Steshina, who shot the video, said: "When we saw it, we did not even realise that it was a turtle. It reminded us of a dinosaur. I have never seen such a thing before and neither have my friends. We talked to the local fishermen and they think it is not the only one here since, they say, such animals do not live alone.

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 There are rumours that we harmed the animal. But as can be seen on the video, we did not do anything harmful, just pushed it to the water. It swam away and was not turned into someone's soup. It wasn't just scary - it was biting through sticks with its jaws and tried to attack us, awkwardly though because it is a water animal.That said, it can move on the ground and you can see it has claws - and I tell you, they are very big."

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Despite their reputation, they are typically not prone to biting, but if provoked are quite capable of delivering a bite with their powerful jaws which can cause significant harm to a human, easily amputating fingers. Adult snappers have no natural predators other than humans, who capture them for their meat and shells, and to sell in the exotic animal trade.

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Source: Legit.ng