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News tagged with turtles

Researchers reveal ancient giant turtle fossil

Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilized remains ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists lift lid on turtle evolution

The turtle is a closer relative of crocodiles and birds than of lizards and snakes, according to researchers who claim to have solved an age-old riddle in animal evolution.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Questions about incredible sea turtle migration answered

Immediately after emerging from their underground nests on the lush beaches of eastern Florida, loggerhead sea turtles scramble into the sea and embark alone on a migration that takes them around the entire ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Warm, dry El Nino weather puts baby sea turtle at risk

When leatherback turtle hatchlings dig out of their nests buried in the sandy Playa Grande beach in northwest Costa Rica, they enter a world filled with dangers. This critically endangered species faces threats that include ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 23, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Movement patterns of endangered turtle vary from Pacific to Atlantic

The movement patterns of critically endangered leatherback turtles vary greatly depending on whether the animals live in the North Atlantic or the Eastern Pacific, with implications for feeding behavior and ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 16, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Ancient civilizations reveal ways to manage fisheries for sustainability

In the search for sustainability of the ocean's fisheries, solutions can be found in a surprising place: the ancient past.

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 23, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Turtles' mating habits protect against effects of climate change

The mating habits of marine turtle may help to protect them against the effects of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Exeter. Published today in the journal Proceedings of th ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Tackle fungal forces to save crops, forests and endangered animals, scientists say

More than 600 million people could be fed each year by halting the spread of fungal diseases in the world's five most important crops, according to research published today in the journal Nature.

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Conservationists' dilemma as threatened jaguar develops taste for endangered turtle

(Phys.org) -- How do you protect two species facing extinction when one begins to prey heavily on the other?

Biology / Ecology

created May 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Weed-eating fish 'help protect jobs, livelihoods'

Jobs, livelihoods and ecotourism industries can benefit from having a diverse supply of weed-eating fish on the world's coral reefs, marine researchers say.

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Predator-prey role reversal as bug eats turtle

In a recent journal published in Entomological Science, Dr. Shin-ya Ohba shares the unusual behavior and role reversal of a giant water bug becoming the predator and eating a juvenile turtle in a ditch in c ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 27, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (4) | comments 9 | with audio podcast report

Turtle embryos speed up development to hatch in the safety of a group

Australian freshwater turtle embryos can sense how developed other babies are in their eggs and then speed up their own growth to hatch with the most advanced of their siblings, according to new research.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Extremely rare turtle released into the wild

The Wildlife Conservation Society, in conjunction with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, announced today the successful release of a Southern River terrapin (Batagur af ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 18, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (18) | comments 0

New thick-shelled turtle species lived with world's biggest snake

The discovery of a new fossil turtle species in Colombia's Cerrejón coal mine by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and the Florida Museum of Natural History helps ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 06, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Baby turtles don't just go with the flow

At just a few centimeters long, hatchling loggerhead turtles may seem powerless to resist being swept around the Atlantic Ocean by powerful currents.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 02, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Turtle

Cryptodira Pleurodira and see text

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines (the crown group of the superorder Chelonia), characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield. "Turtle" may either refer to the Testudines as a whole, or to particular Testudines which make up a form taxon that is not monophyletic—see also sea turtle, terrapin, tortoise, and the discussion below.

The order Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. The earliest known turtles date from 215 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards and snakes. About 300 species are alive today, and some are highly endangered.

Like other reptiles, turtles are ectotherms—varying their internal temperature according to the ambient environment, commonly called cold-blooded. Like other amniotes (reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals), they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water. The largest turtles are aquatic.

For more information about Turtle, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: eggs , sea turtles