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Biblically accurate Donatello! No shade to my boy, but Soft-shell turtles are so weird looking omg. My roommate saw that one episode of Amazing World of Gumball and has since decided they are all demon possessed, but considering it’s Donnie I guess that checks out

Spiny soft-shells actually come in several subspecies, several of which are quite region specific and endangered. They’re pretty funky, having bendy shells apart from the central bony shell plate, with super weird segmented plastral bones, long noses, and lips that cover their beaks. The reason for those can probably be attested to the fact that they are ambush predators, sitting beneath the mud in ponds and slurping up fish like a vacuum when they come close to their hiding spot. They don’t really have scutes, the big scales found on turtle shells and alligator backs, or scales in general I don’t think. (I don’t have a herpetology degree so this is all from surface level googling, feel free to correct!)

It’s hard to figure out how Donnie’s battle-shell would fit around the very flat bottom half of his true shell, as that’s the most bendy part. Additionally, he would probably need extra protection on his front, as the plastron ends higher up on soft-shells and isn’t one solid bone, nor does it have scutes to protect him. Not to mention the rest of him also not really having scales?

With the shape of turtle heads being quite flat, it would probably be hard to make masks that fit. They’d have to wear something more akin to a racing horse maybe? Donnie would probably draw his eyebrows anyway. Gotta have an impressive brow to raise when you gotta judge your brothers for being dum-dums, after all.

Softshells also have extremely long necks, so he can look down at people to judge them no matter how tall (except Raph lol)