This one-ton turtle once ruled South America’s rivers — until a changing planet proved too much for even the largest ...

Hans-Dieter Sues - Curator, Paleontology, National Museum of Natural History In a fit of pique, according to one of Aesop's fables, the god Hermes made the animal carry its house forever on its back.

One of the most telltale features of a turtle is its protective shell, and regardless of the species, most turtle shells are discernably similar. Despite what you might see on cartoons, a turtle’s ...

It's a long-held idea that turtles can tuck their heads into their shells when threatened. But is it true? And is this protective trick why turtles the world over have shells today? The answer is that ...

Shells provide good protection for turtles, but that may not be why those shells originally formed. Denver paleontologist Tyler Lyson says the shells evolved because the turtles' ancestors, ancient ...

Do turtle shells actually consist of modified ribs? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. This weird-but-true claim went viral in mid-June 2021 when Twitter user and post-doctorate turtle expert Ceri ...

In cartoons, when a turtle is spooked, it retreats into and closes up its shell. While used for comic effect, this imagery is based in fact — although not all turtles are capable of this protective ...

Following is a transcript of the video. Narrator: A turtle's shell is as much a part of its body as our rib cage is of ours. In fact, it is their rib cage, and their spine, and their vertebrae, and ...

Move over, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — there is a new, shell-backed badass in town. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers announced the discovery of a ...

Turtle shells evolved over the course of 300 million years, but self-defense wasn't the initial driver, researchers think. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...