Turtle
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
| Turtles Fossil range: Triassic - Recent |
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 "Chelonia" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||
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| Diversity | ||||||||
| ca. 300 species in 14 extant families. | ||||||||
 blue: sea turtles, black: land turtles
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Cryptodira |
A turtle is a type of animal that may live on land or in the water.
Turtles have shells and are the slowest moving reptiles. Most turtles that live in the water have webbed[1] feet like a duck. Tortoises have thick legs like elephants and sea turtles have flippers.
Turtles can see things that are close very well. They cannot see far-away things well.
All turtles need to breathe air. When a turtle breathes, special muscles push the air in and out of the lungs. Turtles are ectothermic. This means that their temperature goes up and down with the temperature of the water and air around them. Some turtles can live for up to a year without eating. Turtles drink water often.
All turtles can live for a long time without food. Tortoises eat plants, fruits and flowers. Some turtles eat fish, tadpoles, snails and insects.
Turtles evolved from reptiles with ribs.
[change] Anatomy and morphology
Turtles vary widely in size, although marine turtles tend to be relatively bigger animals than their land and freshwater relatives.
The largest chelonian is a marine turtle, the great leatherback sea turtle, which reaches a shell length of 200 cm (80 inches) and can reach a weight of over 900 kg (2,000 lb, or 1 short ton). Freshwater turtles are generally smaller, but with the largest species, the Asian softshell turtle Pelochelys cantorii, a few individuals have been reported to measure up to 200 cm or 80 in (Das, 1991). This dwarfs even the better-known alligator snapping turtle, the largest chelonian in North America, which attains a shell length of up to 80 cm (31½ in) and a weight of about 60 kg (170 lb).
[change] Shells
The color of a turtle's shell may vary. Shells are commonly colored brown, black, or olive green. In some species, shells may have red, orange, yellow, or grey markings and these markings are often spots, lines, or irregular blotches. One of the most colorful turtles is the eastern painted turtle. It has a yellow plastron and a black or olive shell with red markings around the rim.
[change] References
- ↑ that means that there is skin between the digits of the feet
