ABSTRACT
Turtles are the oldest representatives of the class Reptilia, as they appeared on earth about 340 million years ago. Currently, there is little more than 200 species, varying greatly between sizes and natural environment. The Trachemys scripta elegans, belonging to the suborder Cryptodira and family Emydidae, comes from the Mississippi Valley in the United States of America. This study aimed to determine the size, mass and volume of the liver of Turtle T. scripta elegans (WIED, 1839) correlating the hepatic data with body biometrics and gender. The liver is across the middle third of the coelomic cavity, with two lobes, right and left, taking the carapace and the dorsal vertebrae, and the plastron, ventral. Furthermore, we observed that the organ has reddish-brown color, but in the case of males, were slightly pale, yellowish-brown all over its surface. The gallbladder was present on the rear-end face of the organ. In females, most of the variables (mass, volume and dimensions) established correlations, demonstrating the interdependence of physical biometric parameters and liver of the turtle Trachemys scripta elegans. However, in males, few variables were correlated, i.e. the parameters are developed independently. It follows therefore that only in female Trachemys scripta elegans, the values of hepatic biometry are proportional to the values somatometric, i.e. the larger the animal, the bigger the liver.