Turtle

25 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Turtle | Amazing Facts 4U

1. Turtles have been on the earth for about 220 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards.
2. Turtles are one of the oldest and most primitive groups of reptiles.
3. There are 327 known species of turtle alive today and many of them are endangered species.
4. Like other reptiles, turtles are cold-blooded animals.
5. The main difference between tortoise and turtle is that tortoise is primarily land animal while turtle mainly lives in the sea. Tortoises have large dome-shaped heavy shells while in turtles the shell is light, flat, and streamlined. In tortoise feet are short and sturdy with bent legs while turtles have webbed feet and have not legged, making them glide easily. Unlike tortoises, turtles don’t only eat vegetation but can feed on small fish, jellyfish, and insects.
6. Turtles can live for up to 50 years while tortoises can live for 150 years or more.
7. A group of turtles is called a bale.
8. Turtles are visually oriented creatures. They rely on sight to identify other members of the same species, food, and potential danger from predators.
9. The top domed part of a turtle’s shell is called the carapace, and the bottom underlying part is called the plastron.
10. The shell of a turtle is made up of 60 different bones all connected together.
11. Shell is actually an evolutionary modification of the rib cage and part of the vertebral column. And contrary to what many believe, a turtle can’t take off its shell and crawl out of it as it is part of the skeleton.
12. Turtles generally can perceive sounds in the 50 to 1,500 Hz range, compared to the typical human hearing range of 20 to 20,000 Hz.
13. Turtles and tortoises have their signature ability to retract their heads inside their shells when frightened.
14. Sea turtles excrete salt absorbed in seawater from their eyes, which is why they seem to cry.
15. The amazing fact is that sea turtles can go up to one year without eating or drinking.
16. Turtles don’t have vocal cords but they can still make noises.
17. The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle at 6 1/2 feet long and it can weigh as much as 800 Kg. The smallest turtle is the 4-inch-long Bog Turtle.
18. You can tell a turtle’s gender by the noise it makes. Males grunt and females hiss. Without this voice, it is difficult to find gender.
19. Amazingly some land turtles can actually outrun a human on level ground.
20. Turtles have good eyesight and an excellent sense of smell. Hearing and sense of touch are both good and even the shell contains nerve endings.
21. In turtles, the intestine is also used for respiration, as it takes in oxygen. That’s how they can stay underwater for so long.
22. You will find male sea turtles on land only during the breeding season. Otherwise, they never come to the land.
23. All turtles lay their eggs on land. When in the eggs, turtles take about 2 months to incubate.
24. In turtle, the temperature determines if the egg will develop into a male or female, lower temperatures below 29 degrees leading to a male and higher temperatures above 29 leading to a female.
25. Amazingly only one out of thousand baby sea turtles survive after hatching.

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~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

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