Gift to the 2013 Origami USA annual Holiday Tree at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Based on my lizard base.

I had a close encounter with a family of these cute creatures on a vacation in Florida. They were living under the hot tub of the house we were renting and could often be seen shuffling around the yard. This model uses my hex base and features a detailed shell, claws and head. The hardest part of this model was making the ears without developing any new points, and without sacrificing the closed back. Fun fact: a group of Armadillos is called a fez.

Developed from my hex base. Unlike the lizard and turtle, the frog is an animal whose back legs are much longer than the front, so the base required some substantial changes. It is fully 3-D and in particular emphasizes the hind legs and the head and brow ridges that fuse into the back.

The Snapping Turtle is commonly found in ponds all over the Eastern United State. Made from a variation on hexagon base, the turtle features a detailed head and claws, and a segmented domed shell. This has proven to be a very popular model. However, unlike a real snapping turtle, this model features two rather than three hexagonal segments in the middle of the back.

This model is was the origin of my hexagon base, which inscribes a regular hexagon into the paper&pos;s square to create a six-pointed base, using the leftover wedges of paper to form the claws. Features detailed head and claws, and a nice, posable body stance.