The ringed sawback turtle is small. Each shield of its upper shell (carapace) has a yellow ring bordered inside and outside with dark olive-brown: its undershell (plastron) is yellow. The head has a large yellow spot behind the eye, two yellow stripes from the orbit backwards, and a characteristic yellow stripe covering the whole lower jaw (Cagle 1953). Males grow to 1O centimeters (cm) and females to 18 cm in plastron length.