Buzz
While a shell is certainly a key feature, it doesn't fully explain the enduring success of turtles and tortoises. As part of the order Testudinata or Testudines, their story is nothing short of fascinating.
These resilient creatures inhabit every continent except Antarctica, thrive in a wide range of extreme environments, and have adapted to diverse diets. What's even more impressive is that they've been surviving longer than humans have existed as a species.
10. They Create Rain Basins
Numerous tortoise species are able to flourish in some of the planet’s hottest deserts. They avoid extreme heat, often exceeding 60°C (140°F), by digging deep into the ground. Faced with intense temperatures and limited water sources, their ability to conserve moisture is essential for survival in these harsh conditions.
Desert tortoises have developed a unique approach to staying hydrated by efficiently absorbing moisture from plants and reabsorbing water that would normally be expelled as waste. However, the most remarkable method they use to stay hydrated is by digging rain basins.
Tortoises are crepuscular, meaning they are most active during the cooler parts of the day, typically at dawn or dusk. As the tortoise wanders the desert during these preferred hours, it pauses to dig small pools that will fill with water after the next rainstorm. These tortoises have a remarkable memory for their puddles and return to drink after each rainfall.
9. They Create Gardens
Water collection isn't the only thing on the tortoise's agenda. These desert creatures are also accidental gardeners. While foraging, the desert tortoise consumes a variety of plants, including cacti, herbs, and shrubs. It doesn't just nibble; the tortoise devours the whole plant, right down to the ground.
The desert benefits from the tortoise’s plant consumption, as they tend to produce a lot of waste. By eating entire plants, they ingest a wide range of seeds. As a result, the tortoise deposits these seeds around her burrow, fertilizing and planting her favorite foods, effectively transplanting the desert’s plant life to a single location.
Over time, a tortoise’s presence shapes and sustains a scrubland habitat that supports not only her, but also other life within the desert ecosystem. Thanks to her long life, an established tortoise plays a vital role in maintaining balance in the harsh environment of her desert home.
8. They Consume Poison and Glass
Some turtles aren’t satisfied with just plants—they indulge in meals that would poison most other creatures. The hawksbill sea turtle is a specialized spongivore, meaning its primary diet consists of creatures that harbor or produce harmful toxins.
Hawksbills accumulate enough of these toxic compounds in their bodies that humans have occasionally fallen ill or even died from secondary poisoning after consuming the turtle's meat. If that's not wild enough, the skeletons of sponges are made of silica spicules, which are essentially shards of glass.
The hawksbill turtle doesn't seem to have any method of breaking down these glass-like shards or rendering them harmless. Instead, they simply consume them without suffering any apparent consequences. Researchers have discovered dead hawksbills with bellies full of sharp glass, some of which has even lodged in their digestive tract. Despite this, these sea turtles continue to feast on their unforgiving food without noticeable side effects.
7. They Attract Prey
The alligator snapping turtle, with its hooked beak, powerful claws, and weight of up to 90 kilograms (200 lbs), has inspired a mythic reputation of bite stories about her kind. While the alligator snapper will bite in self-defense, a 2002 study suggests that her bite isn’t as impressive as often believed.
Anyone on the receiving end of such a bite might beg to differ, but bite pressure tests reveal that the alligator snapper’s bite is much weaker compared to some other turtle species and even falls below the human bite force. However, when it comes to luring prey, she’s a champion.
The alligator snapper has a worm-like appendage on its tongue that it wiggles to attract fish. Lying motionless at the bottom of a stream with her mouth open wide and deceptive tongue floating, the alligator snapper doesn’t need the strongest bite. She just needs patience and precision.
6. They Inflate Their Bodies
To thrive on a global scale, turtles and tortoises must also avoid becoming prey. At first glance, their shells seem like the perfect defense, but they don’t always offer as much protection as they appear to.
Desert tortoises have the ability to retract their heads into their bodies and shield themselves with their front feet, but determined birds can still peck around their defenses. This type of predation leads to many deaths among juvenile tortoises.
The pancake tortoise takes shell defense to the next level by living in crevices between rocky outcrops. His flattened body and shell allow him to access spaces that others of his kind can’t, enabling him to spend the majority of his life concealed.
When threatened, the pancake tortoise can puff up his body by expanding his lungs, making it much harder to extract him. This tactic works well against natural predators, but his biggest danger is being so captivating that he’s caught for the pet trade.
5. They Smell Like Skunks
When not causing trouble by teaming up to steal bait or catch and eat baby ducks, the African helmeted turtle burrows into the mud of the South Sahara to nest and hide. She has no real defense against being hauled out, except to make anyone who tries regret their decision.
Not only is her meat scarce, but the helmeted turtle also secretes a foul-smelling liquid from glands located behind her flippers and beneath her chin when she’s stressed. The overpowering odor of feces can make her far less appetizing, and most animals know to keep their distance.
Despite the smell, people continue to catch these turtles, both for food and the pet trade. Helmeted turtles are endearing, and their faces often look like they’re smiling. For some, that’s enough to tolerate the unpleasant odor.
4. They Are Agile Acrobats
Though we often associate a tortoise's slow, deliberate movements with laziness or clumsiness, they are actually remarkably skilled diggers and climbers, thanks to their excellent sense of balance.
There are many myths surrounding how tortoises perceive the world. One common misconception about their shell is that it’s completely disconnected from their bodies, rendering them unable to feel it. This has led to some cruel experiments. However, recent studies show that tortoises are actually sensitive throughout their entire body, including their shell.
The tortoise’s greatest strength lies in his sense of smell, which helps him with daily tasks like finding food, locating a mate, and avoiding predators. While his hearing doesn’t register higher-frequency sounds and his vision is likely focused on detecting movement, his senses are far more capable than people often think.
3. They’ve Got It Right for Ages
Fossil evidence shows fully shelled turtle fossils dating back 120 million years. Some researchers believe these could be the ancestors of modern turtles, while others suggest that different groups of organisms independently evolved this shape to adapt to both land and sea.
Either way, this history highlights the enduring success of the turtle form. As shells developed, a few other changes occurred from their reptile ancestors. Turtles once had teeth, and they couldn’t always retract their necks.
Over time, turtles discovered that beaks worked just as well as teeth, and that hiding inside their armor could make them safer. Around 120 million years ago, the Testudinata order settled into their modern shape. Since then, they’ve evolved in fascinating ways and remain a truly remarkable group of animals.
2. They Breathe Through Their Butts
All turtles and tortoises possess a cloaca, a single opening that handles both reproductive functions and waste disposal. They poop and lay eggs (or extend their phallus) through the same opening. Surprisingly, some turtles also use their cloaca to breathe.
The Fitzroy River turtle is particularly known for this ability. By drawing water into sacs within his cloaca, he can remain submerged for such long periods that most people in his native Australia don’t even know he exists. The sacs inside his cloaca function like gills, allowing him to extract oxygen from the water.
It’s not a perfect system, though. Eventually, he must surface for air, but cloacal breathing allows him to stay underwater for up to a week. This ability is particularly useful for evading predators.
1. They Breathe Without A Diaphragm
With their internal organs nestled between the two halves of their shell—the carapace on top and the plastron on the bottom—most turtles lack the space to expand a diaphragm or rib cage for breathing. Instead, they rely on other muscle groups to draw air into their lungs.
To accomplish this, turtles use specific movements of their flippers, neck muscles, and sometimes even smaller internal muscles near their lungs. Depending on the species, some turtles also use a method of drawing oxygen from the water, known as buccopharyngeal breathing, where they suck in water through their mouth and expel it through their nose.
The downside to these methods is their high energy consumption. When conserving energy or for species that can’t use buccopharyngeal breathing, turtles have another trick for obtaining oxygen while submerged.
