3-Striped Mud Turtle (left) vs. young stinkpot. While the 2-hinged better developed plastron of muds compared to the poorly developed plastron of musks is often recommended as a distinguishing characteristic, as you can see here the difference is not always that obvious (at least without both side by side). However, the prominent stink between the seams of a musk's plastron are more obvious than a mud's, even here in the stinkpot plastron just above center. Location: Private Collection. Photo: Crazy4Turtles.