Facts about Tortoise

Tortoise Facts

1. "Testudo", the Latin word for tortoise, shell, arch or vault was also the name given to a technique used by Roman soldiers in warfare.

2. The carapace or upper shell of the tortoise or turtle is composed of 50 bones, which include modified ribs, vertebrae and bony skin plates. The lower shell or plastron evolves from the collarbones and the ribs. The bony structure joining the two is called the bridge. The shell is very much alive, and not dead tissue, like nails or hair.

3.Tortoises and turtles do not have teeth.

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

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

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

7. Adult tortoises may survive a year or more without access to water.

8. Much of the tortoise’s water intake comes from moisture in the grasses and wildflowers they consume in the spring.

9. 95% of a Desert Tortoise’s life is spent in underground burrows.

10. The black soft-shelled turtle figures importantly in Hindu mythology. The animals are believed to represent the souls of long ago sinners, transformed into reptiles by a 13th century saint, are in a tank attached to a temple in Bangladesh. Each animal is considered sacred, and so none can be removed.