A possible discovery?

On the left is the turtle in question, and on the right is a painted turtle.

Last week while walking my sisters home from school, a group of boys ahead of us pointed out some turtles sunning themselves on a log in the creek that flows behind my house.  I took some pictures, and was able to identify one of the turtles as an Eastern Painted Turtle, but the other turtle I was not familiar with. I consulted some websites from the NJDEP and a field guide, and had an idea of what the turtle might be, but I wasn't 100% sure. I tried not to get too excited, because I had a possible awesome discovery if I was right.

I went to my former professor who studies herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians), Dr. Lisa Hazard, and asked for her opinion. She came to the same thought as me. I also asked a doctoral student who is very familiar with turtles, and she agreed with my idea of the species.I then asked another doctoral student who did her master's thesis on the species of turtle I thought I had seen, and she also agreed. So I came to the conclusion, with about 99% certainty, that I had, in fact, seen a very old and worn Wood Turtle.

Wood Turtles are listed as threatened in the state of New Jersey, so it would be really awesome if this is actually a wood turtle.

Two days after my first sighting, I saw the turtle again, and this time, I was about to get pictures that showed some orange on the underside of the turtle, which is a characteristic of Wood Turtles. Now I was really excited. I am filling out a form for rare wildlife sightings to send to the DEP, and we'll see what they have to say.

The other cool thing is that this log is apparently a favorite place for turtles to bask in the sun, as I have seen them now a few days in a row. This is one of my favorite pictures: