What Does Turtle Mean
We explain everything about turtles, their diet, habitat and other characteristics. Also, differences between sea and land turtles.
What is a turtle?
Turtles or chelonians are a group of reptiles of aquatic and terrestrial habitat . Its main characteristic is to have a strong shell that protects the internal organs and that covers the entire torso of the animal. Designed as a strong box and made of bone and cartilage, this shell grows alongside the animal and forms part of its own spinal column, so that it can take refuge inside.
This order of reptiles is known zoologically as testudines. It is estimated that they arose 250 million years ago , in the Triassic period of the Mesozoic era. That means they are the oldest reptiles still on Earth , adapted to different habitats and living particularly long lives.
There are about 356 different species of turtles on all continents (except Antarctica), endowed with very diverse sizes, proportions, diets and habitats. Many of them are in danger of extinction , partly due to hunting for the man who eats eggs and decoratively used their shells (in fact, before the invention of the plastic , were used to obtain the tortoiseshell frames of eyeglasses ), and in part due to the contamination of their habitats.
Humans have been attracted to turtles since ancient times. Although there are very few domestic species , these animals tend to abound in the mythological imagination of very diverse cultures , generally as a symbol of ancestral forces and knowledge.
In fact, in Hindu mythology , the entire world was thought to be a disk held up by four large elephants, which in turn were standing on the shell of a tortoise.
See also: Aquatic animals
General characteristics of turtles
Turtles are broadly characterized by the following:
- They are reptiles, that is, vertebrates with cold blood and oviparous reproduction , whose bodies consist of a large shell, a head, a small tail and four limbs, which are legs in tortoises and fins in aquatic ones.
- They lack teeth in the jaw, instead they have a leathery keratin beak , sharp and sometimes serrated.
- They have good vision, which they privilege over the rest of their senses, although they also often use smell and hearing. They have a higher nervous system , like all vertebrate animals, with a brain and a spinal cord.
- With the exception of the aquatic turtles under water , they are parsimonious and not very agile animals. Their slow metabolisms provide them with a long life , reaching a century of life in some species.
- Accustomed to crawling or swimming, they are rarely ever lying on their shells , and land turtles especially have great difficulty in turning around.
Water turtles
Aquatic turtles, fresh or salt water, represent a significant percentage of the world's turtle species. They inhabit the oceans or small wells and lakes.
They have adapted their bodies to submerged life, so they have legs with interdigital membranes or directly fins , which allow them to swim comfortably, without becoming useless in case of having to return to land.
In addition, they have a smooth and hydrodynamic shell . Depending on the species, they can hold their breath for a long time, which allows them to feed without problems underwater.
Land turtles
Tortoises are particularly slow and calm animals , with bulky and rough shells, which can vary greatly in weight , length and coloration.
It is usual to find them outdoors where they are exposed to the sun to warm their cold blood , and in general they have a patient temperament. However, there are also particularly aggressive and territorial species.
Turtle feeding
The feeding of the turtles depends to a large extent on their habitat. Those suitable for terrestrial life are usually mostly herbivorous , with an almost exclusive diet of leaves, stems, roots and fruits, although other species are omnivorous and eat basically what they can, from small mollusks, insects and worms to carrion.
Something similar happens with aquatic species, capable of eating from coral, which supplies them with important nutrients such as calcium, to algae, fish, jellyfish, octopuses and small crustaceans .
Habitat of turtles
Over the centuries, turtles have adapted very well to almost all environments on the earth's surface , as well as to marine and freshwater life. In Southeast Asia and North America there is the greatest diversity of species. In both cases, the favorite environment seems to be the lake , either in small wells, or large rivers and lakes.
Generally, each species of turtle is endemic to its location , that is, it does not occur anywhere else. In addition, there are typical species of forests , deserts , plains or on volcanic islands, such as the Galapagos tortoises that inspired Charles Darwin, enormous in size and capable of living more than a hundred years.
Reproduction of turtles
Like many other reptiles, turtles mate according to seasonal patterns . Turtles do not take care of their offspring, but lay a large number of eggs and bet on the survival of a low percentage of the young.
Fertilized females lay eggs of different shape and texture, always on the ground . Even sea turtles, after mating, migrate hundreds or thousands of kilometers to spawn on land, digging holes and then burying them with enormous effort. From there the little turtles then leave in an unbridled race back towards the water.
Their age of sexual maturity, given their long lives, is slow to arrive, and copulation is laborious, due to the rigidity of the shells. Many species have a recess in the belly of the male, so that it can mate with the female by climbing on top of it from behind.
The shell of the turtle
Turtle shells are made of tough biological materials, such as bone and cartilage, but their shape, strength, and coloration can vary greatly from species to species.
In general, the carapace consists of three regions: a leather-like covering of skin, covering a set of resistant plates of keratin (the same material from which their beaks are made), similar to the scales of other reptiles, and that rest on a series of bone shields.
In addition, the shell consists of two different parts:
- The back. That occupies the upper region or the back of the animal, made up of five rows of plates, arranged in concentric regions of extreme hardness.
- The plastron. That is the region of the belly and chest of the animal, that is, the one that faces the ground, also called "breastplate", and that is usually pale in color, smooth and less resistant.
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