Apalone mutica mutica
Midland Smooth Softshell

Aquatic. Pancake-shaped with long neck and snorkel nose. Carapace mostly without pattern and smooth. Front edge of carapace without bumps. Nostrils without ridge-like projections. Feet not strongly patterned. Species account on iNaturalist

Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019

This species is represented by 119 records from 17 sources: 90 museum (), 0 literature (), 0 research (), and 5 observation (), with 24 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (). It has been museum vouchered for 17 of 75 counties (), with 17 additional counties having other forms of reported occurrence (). Years of collection range from 1889 to 2018.

This species occupies large river systems with soft sand and mud substrates, including the Arkansas, White, Ouachita, Red, and Mississippi rivers. A good number of localities plotted by Trauth et al. (2004), most notably from the Saline River in southeast Arkansas, remain unsourced. Despite several records from northeast Arkansas, corroboration of occurrence in the Missouri Bootheel (Daniel and Edmond, 2020) is lacking. Records demonstrating ascension into the Ozark Highlands (e.g., ASUMZ 2023 from 1972) and Ouachita Mountains (NLU 29961 from 1970), along with a questionable record from Magnolia, Columbia County (MPM 8026 from 1973), may warrant reexamination to confirm species identification.