Macrochelys is a genus of very large freshwater turtles in the family Chelydridae, native to the Southeastern and Midwestern United States.

[3] These turtles are easily recognized by three distinct dorsal ridges with raised spikes.

[8] Neither the Reptile Database[4] nor IUCN's Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group recognize it as separate from M.

[5] Unlike the family Chelydridae as a whole, the genus Macrochelys is exclusively North American.

Hutchison (2008) considered the genus Chelydrops to be a junior synonym of Macrochelys, and recombined its type species, Chelydrops stricta from the Miocene (Early Barstovian) of Nebraska, as the (then) fourth species of Macrochelys.