A tortoise is a reptile of the order Chelonia.
Best known species are the small spur-thighed tortoise Testudo gracea, found in Asia minor, the Balkans and North Africa.
Strictly speaking every tortoise is a turtle, but only land-dwelling turtles are tortoises. (Of course, there's always an exception. In this instance, the land-dwelling box turtle.)
17th century Italian biologist Francesco Redi found that tortoise's brains are so small and irrelevant that when he surgically removed them, they could continue to live for up to six months. When he entirely decapitated one, it still lived for 23 days.
Most tortoises are quite small, but the giant tortoises of the Galapagos and Seychelles reach a huge size - maybe 120 cm/4 feet long.
The top shell of a tortoise is the “carapace”; the bottom half of the shell is the “plastron”; the individual interlocking plates are called “scutes”.
The tortoise's shell consists of a curved upper carapace and flattened lower plaston which are joined at the sides, and the head and limbs may be withdrawn within it, to a greater or lesser extent, in times of danger.
You can't see them, but every tortoise has ribs, a collar bone, and a spine inside its shell.
Tortoises from hot places tend to have lighter-colored shells than tortoises from cooler areas. The light tan sulcata originates from the southern part of the Sahara Desert.
Shells have nerve endings, so tortoises can feel every touch ... and sometimes they love it.
Most have no teeth but their mouth forms a sharp-edged 'beak.'
Like other reptiles, tortoises detect the faintest of smells with the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's Organ, on the roof of their mouths.
You won't be able to tell a tortoise's sex until it reaches a certain size, which varies by breed. The most obvious tell is the plastron—for mating purposes, it's flatter on females and curved on males.
Male tortoises tend to be larger than females and have longer tails.
Tortoises generally have one of the longest lifespans of any animal, and some individuals are known to have lived longer than 150 years.
Tortoises live so long partly because their slow metabolisms burn less energy, which means less harm to the cells in their bodies.
The fastest recorded tortoise speed is 5 mph.
Galapagos tortoises sleep for 16 hours a day and can go a year without food or water.
Most land tortoises are herbivorous, feeding on grasses, weeds, leafy greens, flowers, and some fruits. However there are some omnivorous species are in this family.
Tortoises have to empty their lungs before they can go into their shells. You'll often hear them exhale when they're startled and decide to hide.
Eggs are laid in earth and hatched by the sun.
The oldest tortoise ever recorded for a long time was Tu'i Malila, which was presented to the Tongan royal family by the British explorer Captain James Cook shortly after its birth in 1777. A female radiated tortoise from Madagascar, Tu'i Malila remained in the care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965, at the age of 188.
A Seychelles giant tortoise called Jonathan (hatched c. 1832) became in 2020 the oldest known living land animal. when he reached 188 breaking Tu'i Malila's record. Jonathan resides on the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.
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| Pixiebay |
Best known species are the small spur-thighed tortoise Testudo gracea, found in Asia minor, the Balkans and North Africa.
Strictly speaking every tortoise is a turtle, but only land-dwelling turtles are tortoises. (Of course, there's always an exception. In this instance, the land-dwelling box turtle.)
ANATOMY
17th century Italian biologist Francesco Redi found that tortoise's brains are so small and irrelevant that when he surgically removed them, they could continue to live for up to six months. When he entirely decapitated one, it still lived for 23 days.
Most tortoises are quite small, but the giant tortoises of the Galapagos and Seychelles reach a huge size - maybe 120 cm/4 feet long.
 |
| Pixiebay |
The top shell of a tortoise is the “carapace”; the bottom half of the shell is the “plastron”; the individual interlocking plates are called “scutes”.
The tortoise's shell consists of a curved upper carapace and flattened lower plaston which are joined at the sides, and the head and limbs may be withdrawn within it, to a greater or lesser extent, in times of danger.
You can't see them, but every tortoise has ribs, a collar bone, and a spine inside its shell.
Tortoises from hot places tend to have lighter-colored shells than tortoises from cooler areas. The light tan sulcata originates from the southern part of the Sahara Desert.
Shells have nerve endings, so tortoises can feel every touch ... and sometimes they love it.
Most have no teeth but their mouth forms a sharp-edged 'beak.'
Like other reptiles, tortoises detect the faintest of smells with the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's Organ, on the roof of their mouths.
 |
| Pixiebay |
You won't be able to tell a tortoise's sex until it reaches a certain size, which varies by breed. The most obvious tell is the plastron—for mating purposes, it's flatter on females and curved on males.
Male tortoises tend to be larger than females and have longer tails.
BEHAVIOR
Tortoises live so long partly because their slow metabolisms burn less energy, which means less harm to the cells in their bodies.
The fastest recorded tortoise speed is 5 mph.
Galapagos tortoises sleep for 16 hours a day and can go a year without food or water.
Most land tortoises are herbivorous, feeding on grasses, weeds, leafy greens, flowers, and some fruits. However there are some omnivorous species are in this family.
 |
| Pixiebay |
Tortoises have to empty their lungs before they can go into their shells. You'll often hear them exhale when they're startled and decide to hide.
Eggs are laid in earth and hatched by the sun.
FAMOUS TORTOISES
The oldest tortoise ever recorded for a long time was Tu'i Malila, which was presented to the Tongan royal family by the British explorer Captain James Cook shortly after its birth in 1777. A female radiated tortoise from Madagascar, Tu'i Malila remained in the care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965, at the age of 188.
 |
| TuiMalila |
A Seychelles giant tortoise called Jonathan (hatched c. 1832) became in 2020 the oldest known living land animal. when he reached 188 breaking Tu'i Malila's record. Jonathan resides on the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Two Russian tortoises were aboard the first spacecraft, Zond 5, to return safely from a trip around the Moon on September 21, 1968. As well as the tortoises, Zond 5 also carried fruit fly eggs, and plants.
A tortoise called Adwaita died of liver failure in Calcutta Zoo on March 23, 2006 aged 255 years old. Adwaita was reportedly given to Robert Clive (1725–1774) of the East India Company by British seafarers who captured it in the Seychelles. This anecdotal report has not been confirmed so claims that Adwaita was 255-years old when he died cannot be substantiated.
Charles Darwin brought a 5-year-old Tortoise named Harriet back from the Galápagos Islands in 1835 that eventually wound up at Australia Zoo, founded by Steve Irwin's parents. Harriet, the Tortoise, died on June 23, 2006 at the age of 176, the same year as the Crocodile Hunter's fatal encounter with a stingray.
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| Harriet at the Australia Zoo wikipedia |
After several years as a mascot on a series of navy vessels, Timothy the tortoise was taken in by the Earl of Devon at his home, Powderham Castle in Exeter, SW England, in 1892. The creature was, in fact, female, but the Victorians were not aware of how to tell the sex of tortoises. She died aged about 160 on April 3, 2004.
Two Soviet tortoises were sent on the Russian Zond 5 spacecraft in 1968. They were the first ever creatures to orbit the Moon (three months before the first humans did) and survived the journey despite losing 10 per cent of their weight.
After escaping from his owner's garden in West Hougham, SE England, Toby, a 109-year-old pet tortoise, was returned 11 months later from Margate — 24 miles away.
CONSERVATION
The tortoises of the Galapagos and Seychelles yield about 90 kg (198 lb) of meat which is delicious, even tastier than pork and chicken, with their oil tasting like butter. As they can survive for an entire year without food or water, the giant tortoises were a dream come true for sailors who had access to fresh meat throughout their voyages. However this resulted in their almost complete extermination by passing ships.
In the 1990s, the Galapagos Conservancy launched Project Isabela, an all out war against around 200,000 goats in the Galapagos Islands to save the dwindling population of Galapagos tortoises.
Sharpshooters from New Zealand were flown in to kill the goats from helicopters. Project Isabela ended up successfully restoring the population of the tortoises.
A 100-year-old giant Galapagos tortoise named Diego has nearly single-handedly saved his species from extinction, fathering 800 offspring in the past 50 years! The breeding program, which started in 1970, helped increase the tortoise population to 2,000 from 15. Paternity tests indicate that Diego is responsible for about 40 percent of the offspring produced.
FUN TORTOISE FACTS
The word for ‘pertaining to tortoises' is testudinate.
A group of tortoises is a creep.
Sources Daily Mail, Daily Express, Mental Floss
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