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"QUANTUM SHOT" #720
Link - article by Avi Abrams
      

      Secret of their survival? - They go inside their shell for a long time
        and THINK. Then, they ACT. Or rather, don't.

      Turtles are old species. How old? They existed before mammals, birds,
      crocodiles and lizards... some say even before the dinosaurs themselves,
      well into the Triassic period (more
      info). They survived Triassic–Jurassic and Cretaceous–Tertiary extinctions
      (while also learning to retract their heads into shells) and are holding
      their own very nicely today.

      
      (original unknown)

      Baby turtles are perhaps the most adorable baby reptiles. Here is an
      albino turtle born in Brazil:

      
      (image
        via)

      From tender young age, turtles grow old - up to 255 years old. Can you
      stand the weight of this gaze? This turtle knows something about life:

      
      (original unknown)

      Turtles display all sorts of emotion; from being curious, to being sad:

      
      (originals unknown)

      Perhaps little-known fact is that turtles are very sensitive creatures.
      They have great eyesight, wonderful sense of smell, good hearing and even
      extensive sense of touch (even their shells contains nerve endings)!

      Alligator Snapping Turtle lives up to its name (it also features
      camouflaged tongue which looks like a worm - to lure in some hungry fish,
      and then... CHOMP!) -

      
      (image
        via)

      This delightfully aggressive specimen was caught in China:

      
      
      (image
        via)

      Eastern Box Turtle
      is a "state reptile" of North Carolina, has a nice "box" shell and a
      strange propensity to get hit by cars and agricultural machinery:

      
      
      (images via
        1,
        2)

      Snake Neck Turtle (also called
      Eastern Long-necked Turtle) looks like a broken creature, but it is perfectly fine. It is also a
      known "stinker" as it emits an offensive smelling fluid from its musk
      glands when threatened:

      
      
      (images via
        1,
        2)

      This is the Reimann's snake-necked turtle from New Guinea, one of the
      threatened freshwater species (see
      here)... it also smells like a skunk:

      
      (photo credit: Joel Sartore,
        National Geographic)

      Well, hello there! It does rather look like a toy.

      Galapagos Tortoise: Giants on the Move

      Advance the Tank Squadron!

      
      (image
        via)

      Once upon a time there was an Aldabra Giant Tortoise called
      Adwaita. This mighty male of the species died in 2005, living to be 255 years
      old! - one of the oldest living animals in the world (outside of 400 year
      old mollusks).

      
      (images
        via)

      Dreaming of the young world two hundred years ago:

      
      (image
        via)

      Aldabra tortoise live mainly on the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the
      Seychelles, but there is a much better known variety of this giants. These
      are the Galapagos tortoise, reaching weights of over 400 kg and lengths of
      almost 2 meters! Riding them must be thrilling, though rather slow-paced
      fun:

      
      (images
        via)

      Apparently they like apples, and will reach for an apple with all their
      might... It is also a pretty awesome sight when they do battle:

      
      (images credit:
        Tui De Roy, National Geographic)

      The Galapagos tortoise Nigrita watches her cub in the zoo of Zurich,
      Switzerland (left image) - and the one on the right is just resting:

      
      (left image via, right image
        credit:
        Paul Edward Duckett)

      Soft Shell: "Home, Sweet Home", the Utmost in Comfort Fit

      Indian Flapshell Turtle
      looks out of the really soft and flappy shell:

      
      
      (images via
        1,
        2)

      In fact, these shells look like weird soft blobs (left image above), and
      hundreds are killed every year in the desert ponds of Rajasthan, India.
      Here is another interesting looking specimen of softshell turtle from
      Cambodia... Cantor’s Giant Soft Shelled Turtle,
      Pelochelys cantorii:

      
      (image
        via)

      Pig-nosed Turtle (Carettochelys insculpta):

      
      
      (images via
        1,
        2, Ricardo Franca Silva)

      Look me in the face! -

      
      (image
        via)

      It "flies" like some sort of a flappy-eared dragon:

      
      (image
        via)

      This Indian Flap Soft Shell turtle has a wonderful pinky pig nose and an
      intense gaze:

      
      (image credit:
        Ray Shiu)

      Spotlight Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apalone spinifera, formerly Trionyx
      spiniferus) - left image. On the right is an interesting shell pattern
      seen in Russia:

      
      (images via
        1,
        2)

      You can see many turtles varieties in the Royal Tyrell Museum in Canada:

      
      (original unknown)

      Turtle's Shell Plates are composed of skin. Lots of it.

      The shell of a turtle consist of 60 different bones all joined together
      (forming top carapace and bottom plastron). The pattern on
      the shell is due to the fact that turtles only molt in patches, not
      discarding the whole skin like snakes do. When seen as a cross-section,
      the turtle skeleten is largely empty inside:

      

      So, how do turtles breathe, then? They can not expand and contract their
      shells; "The rigid shell means turtles cannot breathe as other reptiles
      do, by changing the volume of their chest cavity via expansion and
      contraction of the ribs. Instead, turtles breathe in two ways. First, they
      employ buccal pumping, pulling air into their mouth, then pushing it into
      the lungs via oscillations of the floor of the throat. Secondly, by
      contracting the abdominal muscles that cover the posterior opening of the
      shell, the internal volume of the shell increases, drawing air into the
      lungs, allowing these muscles to function in much the same way as the
      mammalian diaphragm." This pre-historic turtle skeleton makes you wonder
      how this creature looked in actual life (well, no, this is a piece of art,
      made by "creator of things that should not be"):

      
      (image credit:
        dethcheez)

      Anyone for a turtle-burger? -

      
      (image credit:
        flaunted)

      
      (images via
        1, )

      When mystical turtles grow old, they turn into huge craggy rocks hidden in
      a forest:

      
      (image
        via)

      On the shoulders of giants:

      
      (original unknown)

      And just as a bonus, a weird French postcard... any additional info on
      this?

      

      CONTINUE TO THE TRULY WEIRD PLATYPUS! ->

      Read the whole weird & funny ANIMALS category! ->




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YOUR COMMENTS::

7 Comments:

Anonymous David @ Ogijima said...

Amazing collection of turtles.
Concerning the last one, the postcard.
It is the "Tarasque" a mythical creature from South-East France. It was some sort of dragon-turtle.
You'll find more details on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Tarasque is an animal of folklore of Provence. Kind of six-legged turtle living in the sude of France. His feast at Tarascon, is part of UNESCO World Heritage

Sources :
- http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TarasqueStatue.jpg
Légend (fr) http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Rougier/tarasque.html

Michel (France)

___  
Anonymous The Rat King said...

Fun extra: Turtles aren't always slow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUmGHdK9e8

___  
Anonymous Ant said...

"I like turtles."

___  
Anonymous Linda said...

Cool list of images. Once you've seen turtles give birth in their own habitat you find a whole new love for them!

___  
Anonymous mike said...

great post with heart touching images , i really mesmerized while i was reading this post .

___  
Anonymous ikinci el eşya alanlar said...

ne ilginc kaplumbagalar varmıs
ikinci el eşya alanlar
kaplumbagalar varmı

___  

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