99 Fun Facts About Turtles & Tortoises

How many recognized species of sea turtles exist today?

Six of the seven share the family Cheloniidae; the seventh is odd enough to have a family all to itself.

What is the top section of a turtle's shell called?

The carapace is the domed upper shell, fused to the turtle's backbone and skeleton, which is why a turtle can never crawl out of its shell.

Which Spanish bishop first recorded the Galápagos Islands and their giant tortoises in 1535?

Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama, drifted to the islands in 1535 and described tortoises so big each could carry a man in a letter to Emperor Charles V.

What determines the sex of most turtle hatchlings?

Most turtle species exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Warmer nest temperatures generally produce females, while cooler temperatures produce males.

What was the name of the last known Pinta Island tortoise?

Lonesome George died on June 24, 2012, and with him the Pinta Island subspecies became extinct.

Which sea turtle species has a shell historically prized for making jewelry and hair combs?

The hawksbill sea turtle is critically endangered and was historically hunted for its beautifully patterned shell, known as 'tortoiseshell,' used in jewelry, combs, and decorative items.

What is the primary diet of adult green sea turtles?

Adult green sea turtles are primarily herbivorous, feeding mainly on seagrasses and algae. They are the only herbivorous species among adult sea turtles.

What is the bottom part of a turtle's shell called?

The plastron is the flat lower shell; the word came into English via French from the Italian piastrone, a breastplate, which is exactly what it resembles.

In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which turtle wears a blue mask?

Leonardo, named after Leonardo da Vinci, wears a blue mask and wields twin katanas. He is typically portrayed as the leader of the group.

Which is the smallest of the sea turtle species?

The Kemp's ridley is the smallest sea turtle: its shell runs to about 2 feet and adults weigh about 100 pounds, roughly half the length of a green turtle.

What is the approximate maximum lifespan of a Galápagos giant tortoise?

About 175 years is the usual upper figure: Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise kept at Australia Zoo, was estimated to be around 175 years old at her death, though most live a little over a century.

What do nesting sea turtles read to find their way back to the beach where they hatched?

Earth's magnetic field is the main cue: hatchlings imprint on their natal beach's geomagnetic signature, and adults use magnetoreception as an internal compass to return across whole oceans.

What do leatherback sea turtles primarily eat?

Leatherback sea turtles feed almost exclusively on jellyfish. Their throats contain backward-pointing spines that help them swallow slippery prey.

The alligator snapping turtle is native to rivers draining into which body of water?

Alligator snapping turtles live in river systems draining into the Gulf of Mexico, chiefly the Mississippi basin, reaching as far north as Illinois.

A Macrochelys snapping turtle lures fish with a worm-like tongue appendage. What do biologists call this trick?

It lies motionless with jaws agape and its camouflaged mouth open, twitching the pink lure like a worm; anything that bites gets a jaw snap.

What is the mass nesting event of sea turtles called, particularly associated with olive ridley turtles?

An arribada (Spanish for 'arrival') is a mass nesting event where thousands of female sea turtles come ashore simultaneously to lay eggs. Olive ridleys are most famous for this behavior.

Which famous naturalist studied the giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands in 1835?

Charles Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835 aboard HMS Beagle. His observations of the tortoises and finches contributed to his theory of evolution by natural selection.

By roughly how much have turtle excluder devices cut sea turtle bycatch in shrimp trawl nets?

About 97 percent: a properly installed turtle excluder device releases roughly 97 percent of turtles entering a shrimp trawl; without it a stressed turtle, whose dive endurance collapses, can drown within minutes.

What type of turtle is known for breathing through its cloaca while hibernating underwater?

Painted turtles and some other freshwater species can absorb oxygen through their cloaca while submerged during winter hibernation, a process called cloacal respiration.

Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise reputedly collected on the Beagle voyage, died in which year?

Harriet died on 23 June 2006 at Australia Zoo in Queensland, where she had spent her final decades as one of the longest-lived animals on record.

What is each keratin plate on a turtle's shell called?

Scutes are the keratin plates covering the shell, made of the same material as hair and fingernails; their pattern and number help tell species apart.

What is unique about the leatherback compared with other sea turtles?

Unlike other sea turtles, the leatherback lacks a hard bony shell. Instead, it has a flexible, leather-like carapace made of connective tissue over a matrix of tiny bone fragments.

In American usage, the word 'tortoise' is reserved for members of the turtle order that live where?

On land: American English uses 'turtle' as the general term and reserves 'tortoise' for land-dwelling species, whereas Australian usage long called freshwater species tortoises.

How far can a leatherback sea turtle dive beneath the ocean surface?

Leatherback sea turtles are the deepest-diving reptiles, capable of reaching depths over 3,900 feet (1,200 meters) — deeper than most marine mammals.

In the TMNT franchise, what is the name of the turtles' rat sensei?

A mutant rat, he trained the four turtles in ninjutsu in the sewers and raised them as his sons; in the 1987 cartoon he was the human ninja Hamato Yoshi before mutating.

What is the scientific order that includes all turtles and tortoises?

Testudines (also called Chelonii) is the order covering every turtle, tortoise and terrapin, from sea turtles to land tortoises, united by a shell fused to the skeleton.

The gopher tortoise is the official state tortoise of which U.S. state?

Florida made the gopher tortoise its state tortoise in 2008; Georgia lists it as state reptile instead. Its burrows shelter over 350 other animal species, a keystone of the longleaf pine ecosystem.

Which organ lets sea turtles cry out the excess salt from the seawater they drink?

Tear glands: a salt gland behind each eye pumps out concentrated brine, which is why nesting females often look as though they are weeping.

Jonathan, a giant tortoise on Saint Helena, was recognised by Guinness in 2022 as what?

Guinness named Jonathan the oldest known living land animal in January 2022; hatched around 1832 and brought to Saint Helena in 1882, he was then about 190 years old.

In which tradition does the world rest on a giant turtle's back?

In Hindu mythology, the god Vishnu took the form of a giant turtle (Kurma) to support Mount Mandara. Many cultures, including some Native American traditions, also feature world-turtle cosmology.

What is the fastest speed a leatherback sea turtle has been recorded swimming?

Leatherback sea turtles have been recorded swimming at speeds up to 22 mph (35 km/h), making them the fastest reptiles in water.

Turtles that pull their heads straight back into their shells belong to which suborder?

Cryptodira means 'hidden neck': these turtles draw the head straight back in an S-curve, whereas the other living suborder, Pleurodira, folds the neck sideways under the shell rim.

Which island nation is home to the Aldabra giant tortoise?

The Seychelles' Aldabra Atoll, remote enough to keep its forests when other islands were cleared, holds the largest population, roughly 100,000 tortoises, despite heavy past hunting for meat.

Which type of turtle is the most commonly kept as a pet in the United States?

The red-eared slider, named for the red stripe behind each eye, is the most popular pet turtle in the US and the world; released pets have made it invasive in many areas.

Roughly how many eggs does a green sea turtle lay in a single nest?

Green turtles typically lay 85-200 eggs per clutch, about 110 on average, and a female may nest several times in one season, digging each chamber with her hind flippers.

What type of turtle can completely close its shell like a box, sealing itself inside?

Box turtles have a hinged plastron (bottom shell) that allows them to close their shell completely, forming a tight 'box' that protects them from predators.

Molecular studies place turtles as the sister group to which reptile clade?

Archosaurs, the clade of crocodilians and birds, are the turtles' closest living relatives in molecular studies; older anatomical work put turtles nearer lizards and snakes, and the split is dated to roughly 255 million years ago.

Diego, the Galápagos tortoise credited with saving his subspecies, came from which island?

Diego is an Española Island tortoise (Chelonoidis hoodensis); after decades unrecognised at the San Diego Zoo he joined a breeding programme in the mid-1970s and fathered roughly 40 percent of its offspring.

What is the name for the study of reptiles and amphibians, which includes turtles?

Herpetology is the branch of zoology that studies reptiles and amphibians. The word comes from the Greek 'herpeton,' meaning 'creeping animal.'

Which sea turtle species nests exclusively in Australia?

The flatback sea turtle (Natator depressus) is unique among sea turtles in that it nests only on the beaches of Australia and has a relatively limited range in the waters around the Australian continental shelf.

Fossils show turtles have been on Earth for roughly how long?

Over 200 million years: fully shelled turtles such as Proganochelys date to the Late Triassic around 210 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest living reptile groups.

In Finding Nemo, which sea turtle helps Marlin and Dory ride the East Australian Current?

Crush is the laid-back, surfer-dude green sea turtle in Finding Nemo who guides Marlin and Dory through the East Australian Current. Squirt is his son.

Which turtle, down to a handful of known individuals, is considered the world's rarest?

The Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is widely regarded as the world's most endangered turtle; by 2023 only a few individuals were known, including one male at Suzhou Zoo.

What do baby sea turtles use to break out of their eggs?

Baby sea turtles use a caruncle — a temporary, sharp projection on their snout, sometimes called an egg tooth — to break through the leathery eggshell. It falls off shortly after hatching.

Which TMNT character is known for wearing an orange mask and being the fun-loving, pizza-obsessed turtle?

Michelangelo, named after the Renaissance artist, wears an orange mask and is known for his love of pizza, humorous personality, and use of nunchucks.

Of roughly 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings, how many are thought to reach adulthood?

About one in 1,000 is the usual estimate: gulls, crabs and raccoons pick hatchlings off on the sand, and sharks and large fish wait just offshore.

In Aesop's 'The Tortoise and the Hare', what does the Hare do mid-race that lets the Tortoise win?

The Hare, far ahead, takes a nap, and the steadily plodding Tortoise passes him to win; the fable is number 226 in the Perry Index of Aesop's fables.

Where do young sea turtles spend most of their first three to five years, the so-called 'lost years'?

Hatchling loggerheads ride floating rafts of Sargassum, feeding on whatever drifts past, before returning to coastal waters as juveniles.

What is the largest freshwater turtle species in North America?

The alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) is the largest freshwater turtle in North America, with males commonly exceeding 175 pounds and some reaching over 220 pounds.

Roughly how many living and recently extinct turtle species are recognized worldwide?

About 360 species: the tally covers every land tortoise and freshwater terrapin as well as the sea turtles, counting species known since 1500 AD.

The East African pancake tortoise uses its flat, flexible shell to do what?

It is a fast, agile climber that bolts for the nearest crack in the rock when disturbed, exploiting a refuge no other tortoise can use.

The South American mata mata captures prey using which technique?

It thrusts out its head and gapes its huge mouth, creating a low-pressure vacuum that pulls fish in; its bark-like shell and leaf-like head keep it hidden until then.

Archelon, the largest turtle ever documented, lived in which geological period?

Archelon lived in the Late Cretaceous, about 80 million years ago, in North America's Western Interior Seaway; its biggest specimen, nicknamed Brigitta, measures about 4.6 metres and is displayed in Vienna.

Fossils of Stupendemys, the largest known freshwater turtle, were first dug up in 1972 where?

Venezuela: the first Stupendemys fossils came from the Urumaco Formation in 1972; its carapace could exceed two metres, and it swam northern South America's wetlands between roughly 13 and 5 million years ago.

Tu'i Malila, said to be a gift from Captain Cook to Tonga's royal family, was which species?

Tu'i Malila was a radiated tortoise; she lived from about 1777 until 1966, outlasting Cook, who died in 1779, by nearly two centuries.

Adwaita, a tortoise who died at Kolkata's zoo in 2006, was said to have belonged to which Briton?

Legend holds Robert Clive kept Adwaita among four tortoises at his Barrackpore estate after Plassey in 1757; the story has never been substantiated.

The North American wood turtle stomps its front feet on the ground to lure what to the surface?

Earthworms surface when the turtle's stomping mimics the vibrations of rain or a digging mole, a trick known as worm charming that delivers an easy meal.

Testudo, mascot of the University of Maryland, is what kind of turtle?

Testudo is a diamondback terrapin, a brackish-marsh native; coach and president Curley Byrd proposed it in 1932, and the Class of 1933 gave a bronze statue.

The Chinese softshell turtle gets rid of urea through which unusual route?

Its mouth: a urea transporter in the mouth lining lets the turtle dump waste simply by rinsing its mouth in water, saving precious moisture in brackish habitats.

Mayumba National Park, possibly the world's biggest leatherback nesting site, is in which country?

Mayumba National Park lies on Gabon's southern Atlantic coast; it was created in 2002 largely to protect leatherbacks, which nest there in the tens of thousands between October and April.

Adult leatherbacks have been found with core body temperatures how far above the surrounding water?

18 °C: one leatherback measured in 7.5 °C water had a core temperature of 25.5 °C; the species holds its own metabolic heat (gigantothermy) and can hunt in near-freezing seas.

The loggerhead sea turtle takes its English name from which feature?

'Loggerhead' refers to its oversized head, whose heavy jaws are built for crushing hard-shelled prey such as conchs and crabs.

Kemp's ridley is the only sea turtle that typically comes ashore to nest at what time?

In daylight hours: Kemp's ridleys come ashore by day in mass nestings, mostly on one beach, Rancho Nuevo in Mexico's Tamaulipas state, which made them brutally easy to overharvest.

The green sea turtle is named for the colour of which part of its body?

Its fat: the shell is olive to black, but the greenish body fat beneath it, coloured by a strict seagrass diet, gave the species its name.

What is the Hawaiian name for the green sea turtle, a local symbol of luck and longevity?

Honu is the Hawaiian green sea turtle, an ʻaumakua (guardian spirit) for some families; manō, nēnē and heʻe mean shark, goose and octopus.

Tortuguero, one of the Caribbean's most important green turtle nesting beaches, lies in which Central American country?

Tortuguero in Costa Rica is the Caribbean's principal green turtle rookery; biologist Archie Carr's work there from the 1950s led to the Caribbean Conservation Corporation and national park protection.

On which date is World Turtle Day observed each year?

May 23 has been World Turtle Day since 2000, started by American Tortoise Rescue to draw attention to shelled reptiles and their vanishing habitats.

Gamera, the giant flying turtle of Japanese cinema, debuted in a 1965 film from which studio?

Daiei released Gamera in 1965 as its answer to Toho's Godzilla; the kaiju went on to a dozen films as Godzilla's perennial rival.

Shigeru Miyamoto originally conceived Mario's shelled nemesis Bowser as which animal?

The idea came from the Ox-King in Toei's animated film Alakazam the Great before the design turned turtle-like.

Dr. Seuss said the power-hungry Yertle the Turtle stood for which real dictator?

Dr. Seuss said Yertle was Adolf Hitler; his rule over the pond and grab for territory mirror the Nazi regime, until a burp from Mack at the bottom of the stack topples him.

Which Korean admiral is credited with designing the improved 'turtle ship' warship?

Admiral Yi Sun-sin, who won every battle he fought against the Japanese navy, is credited with the improved turtle ship; some historians call it a very early ironclad, though the evidence is uncertain.

Mock turtle soup traditionally imitates turtle meat with which ingredient?

Calf's head, prized for its gelatinous meat, stood in for green turtle in mock turtle soup, an 18th-century English invention; demand for the real soup pushed green turtles toward extinction.

'Turtle graphics', where a cursor draws lines as it moves, is a signature feature of which language?

Logo, developed in 1967 by Seymour Papert and colleagues, made the drawing turtle its signature; Papert called the way children reason about the turtle's moves 'body syntonic' thinking.

Who built the Turtle, the first submarine with a documented combat record, in 1775?

David Bushnell, a Yale student, built the Turtle to fix explosive charges to Royal Navy hulls in New York Harbor; every 1776 attempt failed and its final fate is unknown.

The bog turtle, North America's smallest, reaches roughly what shell length when fully grown?

About 4 in (10 cm): the bog turtle is North America's smallest; DNA work shows it is a close relative of the wood turtle, which is why both share the genus Glyptemys.

The desert tortoise is the official state reptile of Nevada and which other state?

California adopted the desert tortoise as state reptile in 1972 and Nevada in 1989; it survives ground temperatures above 60 °C by spending about 95 percent of its life in burrows.

The critically endangered ploughshare tortoise survives only around Baly Bay in which country?

Madagascar: the ploughshare tortoise survives only around Baly Bay in the northwest; conservationists deliberately engrave identifying marks into its shell to make it less desirable to poachers and collectors.

In Chinese cosmology, the Black Tortoise of the Four Symbols represents which direction?

The Black Tortoise rules the north and, because tortoises and snakes hibernate, stands for winter too; in Japan it is read as Genbu.

Kurma, the tortoise form of Vishnu, is which of his ten avatars in order?

Kurma is the second of Vishnu's ten avatars, after Matsya the fish; he serves as the base for the churning rod in the Samudra Manthana, the churning of the Ocean of Milk.

Roman legionaries overlapped what to form the 'testudo', or tortoise formation?

Soldiers aligned their shields into a packed formation covered in front and on top, a favourite for troops advancing on walls during sieges.

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was published in 1984 by which company?

Mirage Studios was Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's own imprint; the 1984 comic began as a self-published parody of Daredevil, New Mutants, Cerebus and Ronin that became a surprise hit.

The Ninja Turtles' rat mentor was written as a play on which Daredevil character?

Stick, the blind mentor who trained Daredevil, inspired the Turtles' rat sensei; like Daredevil, the Turtles were transformed by radioactive material, part of the comic's send-up of 1980s superhero tropes.

The leatherback is the sole living member of which sea turtle family?

Dermochelyidae contains only the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea); all other living sea turtles belong to Cheloniidae and carry bony, scute-covered shells.

Who voiced Grand Master Oogway in the first and third Kung Fu Panda films?

Randall Duk Kim, a Korean-American stage actor, voiced Oogway; the elderly tortoise is the creator of kung fu in the films and picks Po as the Dragon Warrior, to Shifu's dismay.

John Green's novel 'Turtles All the Way Down' takes its title from which philosophical idea?

Infinite regress: the title echoes the anecdote of a world resting on a turtle standing on another turtle, 'all the way down'; Green's 2017 novel was his first direct treatment of his own OCD.

Shang dynasty oracle bones were made from ox shoulder blades and which part of a turtle?

The lower shell (plastron): diviners heated turtle plastrons and ox scapulae until they cracked and read the fissures; reading turtle shells this way is called plastromancy.

In Roald Dahl's 'Esio Trot', what is the name of Mrs Silver's pet tortoise?

Alfie is Mrs Silver's tortoise; Mr Hoppy secretly swaps in ever-larger tortoises from pet shops so his neighbour believes her backwards spell is making Alfie grow.

Bert the Turtle starred in a 1952 US civil defense film teaching children to do what?

Duck and Cover: Bert pulls into his shell when a monkey sets off a firecracker, showing children how to drop and shelter from an atomic flash; the film joined the National Film Registry in 2004.

In Zeno's famous paradox, which Greek hero can never overtake a tortoise given a head start?

Achilles, the swift-footed hero, can never catch the tortoise because Zeno argued the gap can be subdivided forever, so catching up would take infinitely many steps.

Which Greek playwright was said to have been killed by a tortoise dropped by an eagle?

Aeschylus, the legend goes, died at Gela when an eagle mistook his bald head for a rock and dropped a tortoise on it; Valerius Maximus recorded the tale.

Who picked the common snapping turtle as New York's state reptile before lawmakers confirmed it?

Elementary school children across New York voted for the common snapping turtle, and lawmakers made it the state reptile in 2006, despite the species' fearsome and much-exaggerated reputation.

Why is the common musk turtle nicknamed the 'stinkpot'?

The glands sit along the edge of its shell, and its species name odoratus is Latin for having a smell.

What makes up 70 to 95 percent of a hawksbill sea turtle's diet?

Sea sponges make up most of a hawksbill's diet, a menu that ties it closely to coral reefs, where it also finds places to hide from predators.

Gahirmatha, site of enormous olive ridley mass nestings, lies in which Indian state?

Gahirmatha beach in Odisha, on India's east coast, hosts one of the world's largest olive ridley mass nestings; the species is the most abundant sea turtle yet has declined over 30 percent from historic levels.

A turtle's shell is built mainly from modified versions of which bones?

Ribs, broadened and fused with the backbone, form the carapace; the stem turtle Odontochelys, from 220 million years ago, shows broadened ribs and a plastron before any upper shell existed.

In the Pokémon games, the turtle starter Squirtle evolves first into what?

Squirtle becomes Wartortle at level 16 and Blastoise at level 36; Wartortle's furry ears and tail nod to the minogame, the long-tailed tortoise of Japanese legend.

Australia's Mary River turtle earned the nickname 'punk turtle' because of what?

It can also absorb oxygen through its cloaca while submerged, a trick shared by a few other Australian river turtles.

Galápagos tortoises with long necks and 'saddleback' shells come from islands with what conditions?

The raised shell front lets them stretch up for cactus pads; island populations with plenty of low forage stay domed and short-necked.

Cecil Turtle repeatedly outwitted which cartoon star, starting with 1941's 'Tortoise Beats Hare'?

Bugs Bunny lost to Tex Avery's slowpoke three times running, in Tortoise Beats Hare, Tortoise Wins by a Hare and Rabbit Transit, and Cecil liked to taunt him with the nickname 'Speedy'.