What species is Kamoebas?

[Terrier]

Is Kamoebas supposed to be any specific species of turtle? Many sites call him a "rock turtle", but for what I could find that name is not used for any real world species.
There is a real turtle in the movie at 18:34 that may actually be Kamoebas before mutation. Any clue what species that is?

I was going to ask this in a Space Amoeba thread but they are all old and inactive.

[ScootaVaran]

I thought he was a snapping turtle.
Hmm, I'll put in the DVD and watch the special features. It said it in there I believe.


*edit. It was a Mata Mata Turtle.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_mata

[Terrier]

Thanks a lot! Snapping turtle was my first assumption too, because of the neck, but otherwise they weren't too similar.

I was hoping to look for the sexual dimorphism of whatever species Kamoebas was to see if "he" may actually be a "she". Apparently the main difference is the size of the tail, being shorter in females. Kamoebas' tail seem short to me but it could still be proportional to a male turtle.

Edit: Kamoebas may be male after all. The tiny tail of females is almost unnoticable, and males also have a concave lower side of the shell, wich Kamoebas seems to have.

[tbeasley]

There is a real turtle in the movie at 18:34 that may actually be Kamoebas before mutation. Any clue what species that is?

I believe for that moment they got an unrelated turtle and stuck makeup on its shell.

[Dr. Nishiyama]

Kamoebas's species is a matamata turtle

[Terrier]

It seems obvious now seeing how in Tokyo SOS Kamoebas was called "Megalo matamata", but I must have assumed the whole name was made up ("mata" is spanish and maybe latin for "kill", and Kamoebas was dead, so...).

[Beef Bigshot]

It seems obvious now seeing how in Tokyo SOS Kamoebas was called "Megalo matamata", but I must have assumed the whole name was made up ("mata" is spanish and maybe latin for "kill", and Kamoebas was dead, so...).

Imagine finding the corpse of an undiscovered animal and naming it after just that, the fact that its dead...

[edgaguirus]

A very morbid legacy. Mata Mata is the species name, and Megalo is latin for big.