Largest freshwater turtle (living)

The largest living species of freshwater turtle is the critically endangered Yangtze giant softshell turtle Rafetus swinhoei, currently represented by only three known living specimens, but formerly native to the Yangtze River and elsewhere in China, as well as in Vietnam. It measures over 1 m long and up to 0.7 m wide, and the heaviest recorded specimen weighed 250 kg.

Some researchers have claimed that a related species, the Asian giant softshell turtle Pelochelys cantorii, is the largest living species of freshwater turtle. However, such claims are fraught with problems, because it now seems likely that this species is actually a composite, i.e., consisting of several separate, presently undifferentiated species that have all been traditionally but erroneously lumped together taxonomically as a single species.