Cool Facts:

Turtles have been found on Earth for over 200 million years and are considered one of the earliest reptiles.

Turtles and tortoises evolved before most of the others in the animal kingdom even before lizards.

Modern day turtles are almost exactly the same as prehistoric turtles found over 200 millions years ago.

Many different species of turtles can live to over 100 years of age including the Green Sea Turtle.

Turtles live everywhere expect Antarctica because they can’t handle the cold because they are cold blooded and the cold would send them into a permanent hibernation.

Turtles range in size from the 4-inch Bog Turtle to the humongous Galapagos Tortoise(spoken about in another document by me about the Galapagos islands: http://purpleslinky.com/trivia/galapagos-island-interesting-facts/).

Turtles can breath through their bottom by used the muscles in their bottom to extract Oxygen from the water around them meaning they don’t have to come to the top of the water to breath. Baby turtles aren’t able to do this until they are a few months old.

America has a huge variety of different turtle species because of its diverse climate, but Europe has only two species of turtle and three species of tortoise which shows how Europe doesn’t have the right conditions for turtles and tortoises alike to live.

Turtle shells are made from 60 different bones all connected together and can feel you touching it because it has nerves in its shell.

Many tortoises have high, domed shells to offer protection from the snapping mouths of its land predators.

Almost all aquatic turtles tend to have flatter, better aerodynamic shaped shells so that they can move faster through the water to get away from predators

Turtles have a not so great eyesight but they do have an excellent sense of smell. Hearing things and sense of touch are both good but not as amazing as a turtles sense of smell and even the shell contains nerve endings which is amazing.

Turtles are aquatic and have fin like paws to help swim while they can still walk on land, tortoises have flat feet much like an elephant which helps with walking on land but not with swimming.

Turtles are often depicted as symbols of patience and wisdom.

Kemp’s Ridley is the rarest and smallest of all sea turtles. It is an endangered species which means if you see one don’t try to kill it.

Turtles are one of the most primitive groups of reptiles supposedly more primitive than most lizards.

People often keep turtles as pets.

Turtles don’t have many natural predators because of their hard shell but humans are slaughtering them and causing many species of turtles to become endangered.

Turtles eat many different meats and plants, and will only be fed once a day if they are babies and only 2-3 times a week if adults.

The snapping turtle has a worm-like, fleshy structure on its tongue, which it wiggles to attract fish and is a very cool turtle.

Turtles cannot protrude their tongues from their mouths, but they can smell which helps.

Flapping the loose skin under the chin or throat moves air over the Jacobsen’s organ so that they can breath.

Stupendemys geographicus was a prehistoric turtle that was 10 feet long and probably weighed 4,000 to 5,000 pounds.

Contrary to what many people say i have first hand seen a very fast turtle, turtles are fast at swimming but still pretty fast at running on land but not close to as fast as a human or other animal.

Turtles can either be long necked or shortnecked, long necks are amushers and hide to try and sneak up on its prey, while short necks are more aggresive and will snap more at their prey. You can tell if they are short necks because short is 5 letters and it has five toes while long has 4 letters and only has 4 toes.

Turtles are very hard to look after but are awesome.

Thank you for reading my article i have many more on the way. Please tell your friends and family about this site because the more the merrier. I hope you have learnt something about turtles.