Turtles are one of the ancient animals. The exact date of their appearance has not been established, but most scientists determine that they are more than 220 million years old.
Turtles have a shell that covers their back and abdomen and provides protection. The shell has holes in the back and front through which they can stick out their head, tail and limbs at the right time. They have no teeth; they have a sharp beak, thanks to which they swallow food whole.
Turtles are calm, peaceful animals. They are slow in their actions, but sea turtles are excellent swimmers, and land turtles move quickly.
The color of turtles matches their habitat, which is protection from their enemies. Sensing danger, turtles hide their limbs in their shells. The lifespan of turtles is more than 100 years. But, according to scientists, some can live for 200 years.
Turtles reproduce by eggs. With their hind paws they dig a hole, lay eggs there and fill the hole, compacting it, and immediately leave this place. They do not hatch or care for their young.
Eggs heated by the sun give birth, hatching into babies that take care of themselves without requiring help. An interesting fact is that sea turtles lay their eggs in the place where they themselves were once born.
There are terrestrial and sea turtles. Those that live on land are also divided into land animals and those that live in fresh water bodies.
Sea turtles live in water almost all the time and are excellent swimmers. Their size sometimes exceeds 2 meters and their weight is large. Instead of paws they have flippers. Sea turtles feed on fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and algae.
Freshwater turtles live in rivers, lakes, and swamps. They can breathe through their lungs, so they often come out onto land to bask in the sun. They also move well on land, which cannot be said about their sea counterparts. Being predators, they eat fish and also feed on shellfish and plants.
Land turtles live in arid areas - forests, mountains, deserts. They have an oval convex shell, which makes it possible to hide their head and paws in it in case of danger. They have claws on their paws. They feed on plants, but some can eat insects. They move slowly. Many of their varieties hibernate.
Turtles are common in tropical and temperate climates. People eat many varieties of them. But we should not forget that there are also poisonous turtles.
Option 2
Together with crocodiles, snakes and lizards, turtles belong to the order of reptiles or reptiles. There are more than 300 species. Among the turtles there are many marine inhabitants, some living on land or in freshwater bodies. They inhabit areas with tropical or temperate climates.
The brightest distinctive feature of these animals is a shell consisting of a dorsal and abdominal half. It performs a protective function and is able to withstand a load 200 times greater than the animal’s own weight. The shell comes in various colors, with ridges and teeth. In newly born turtles it is soft and hardens over time.
The largest is the leatherback turtle, its shell reaches 2.5 m in length and weighs up to 1 ton. Sea turtles are usually larger than freshwater turtles. The largest land turtles are elephant tortoises that live on the Galapagos Islands, weighing up to 400 kg and up to 2 m long. The smallest is the Cape speckled tortoise, weighing no more than 250 g and having a length of up to 12 cm.
These reptiles have no teeth; they bite off food with a hard beak. Turtles have good color vision, which helps them recognize food; smell is of secondary importance. Land turtles react most to red shades; they prefer plant foods. Marine representatives are predators, feeding on fish and shellfish.
If the turtle is in danger, it pulls its head into its shell, additionally covering it with its thick front paws.
Turtles are oviparous animals. Moreover, after laying eggs, the female does not show concern for her offspring; only some species guard the clutch of eggs until the babies hatch. Turtles live separately. They are truly long-lived among vertebrates, many of them live 150-200 years.
Due to the fact that turtle meat is a delicacy, their numbers are greatly reduced. 228 species are listed in the Red Book. They are also hampered by environmental pollution and transport. Turtles are often kept as pets because they pose no threat to humans. Very rarely individual species may bite. Eating poisonous jellyfish or mushrooms can cause turtle meat to become toxic and cause poisoning in humans.
2nd, 3rd, 7th grade. The world. Biology
- Report about Daisies (message 2, 3rd grade - the world around us)
Chamomile is a herbaceous flowering plant from the Asteraceae family. Chamomile blooms in the first year of life. The plant genus includes 20 species, of which the most famous is Chamomile.
Archimedes is a scientist originally from Syracuse who lived his life from 287 to 212 BC new era. As a boy, he showed an ability to understand the world and the king of Syracuse sent him “to the mainland” to study with the best minds of that time
Turtles
Turtles are very ancient animals; they have lived on earth for many thousands of years. During this time they hardly changed their appearance. The body of these animals is enclosed in a bony shell - they say that they “carry their house on themselves.” There are several types of turtles. They can be found in salt and fresh water, in forests and deserts.Sea turtles are the largest, up to two meters long. A turtle weighs like a small one a car; It feeds on algae, fish, and jellyfish.
Land turtles eat plant foods. In fact, turtles can go without food for a very long time - about a year. This helps them endure the winter - they dig holes for themselves and wait there for the onset of warmth.
Little turtles hatch from eggs. In terrestrial turtles, eggs have a white, hard shell; among mermen it is soft and thin, like paper.
Turtles see very well, they can even distinguish colors. They have excellent hearing, almost like cats. If you speak kindly to a turtle, it stretches its neck and listens; if you scold, he hides in his shell. A very interesting and mysterious animal.
As a child, I really loved watching cartoons about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well, who didn't love it? And here, in the movie the other day, they showed about them. I wanted to buy it.
Bought. Looks like a funny creature. There is no benefit from it, but there is no harm either. Damn. I'd rather buy some fish. This animal took six months of my life. Not only is she sluggish, comatose, I would even say, but she also gets underfoot.
And he doesn’t sleep at night. Nope. Something is scratching, rustling in the corners all the time, rattling something, or eating constantly, or it will rest its tower against the wall and stall until the morning. It doesn't have reverse gear. And I want to sleep.
And here there are two options, either get up, push your wife, turn on the light, raise the bed, find this bulldozer and hit him in the neck, or feel love and endure until this creature calms down. In the morning.
Well, at night, sometimes, you need to go to the outhouse, or to the refrigerator, to get something to eat, to go, and then this animal crawls madly in the dark. I stumble and fall, so as not to strangle the vile creature. My wife is generally scared, she’s not used to it yet.
To identify the creature in the night, I screwed a battery and an LED onto its roof in flashing mode. Now at night there is a lunar rover driving under my bed, it shines so blue, pew-pew-pew. Looks good when you're asleep. But still, the horn will rest and stall. I thought why would this happen? Doper. Just try driving a car in the dark, huh? Here.
I stuck a super bright LED on her shoulder. Headlights, sort of. It immediately became hotter. She’s crawling now, and she can see everything. Otherwise she wandered in the dark like a blind muskrat. So I solved one problem. Armor is good. This lunar rover drives too slowly. Yeah. Then I stuck small wheels on the bottom. At first the turtle was stunned, from such speeds, accelerations and prospects, and then nothing, he got used to it. I even learned to drive a little.
You put her on the floor, you set the direction, and she rows, using her paws. Lovely to look at it. At night she even performs some kind of maneuvers, under cabinets and beds. Having fun, you bastard. Sometimes guests are frightening. They are sitting, and here it rolls out from under the sofa, covered in light bulbs and on wheels, turning its tower importantly, figuring out the route, and rolling off in the other direction. The guests are shocked, and so is the turtle. Who said they were brainless, huh?
Never mind. He teased her somehow. I pointed my finger at the mug, but by the time it figured out what was going on, it didn’t have time to bite me. Well, he poked it on the floor and let it down. On wheels. It rolled around for a bit and I forgot about it. Then this bastard flashed me with her headlights, crept up from the corner while I was watching a movie and grabbed me by the little finger! Now think about whether she has brains or not.
I almost lost her once, really. We went into nature, had a drink and a snack, and my comatose crawled into the grass. It doesn’t respond to screams, and it won’t crawl back on its own. There are so many goodies around! Bulls there, chips. Somehow we found it later, it was eating Shoto right next to the trash bin. But nothing. Then I stuck a McDonald's flag on her roof with plasticine. Now he crawls through the grass with a bright flag - he is always visible.
This story happened to me in seventh grade. The incident is funny and ironic.
I like pets. I had many different ones: small and large, smart, beautiful, funny, flying, fluffy and playful. And they were all loved by me and my family.
But I never had a turtle. I never even thought about this type of pet. And, to be honest, I was a little afraid of them.
One fine day my grandfather came to visit. He was silent, but happy. In one of his hands was a shoebox with holes in the lid. And in the other some kind of package. He came in, put the box on the floor, called me, mom and dad and solemnly opened the box. There was a large turtle sitting in it, which looked at us in much the same way as we looked at it. A look full of surprise and bewilderment. I knew that turtles take a long time to grow, so the size of this turtle told me about its long life. This increased the fear of her even more.
Grandfather, thinking that the appearance of the turtle had brought me unspeakable pleasure, handed me the package and left. A slight stupor did not even allow me to ask where this turtle came from and what to do with it. I opened the package, there was food for my new pet, calcium and a brush to clean the shell.
I will sincerely say that I was very afraid of this turtle. She crawled wherever she wanted, but in response to my attempts to take her, I only heard a hiss. Mom immediately refused to look after the turtle, saying that this is my animal and I must take care of it.
I did not know and still do not know all the intricacies of the life of turtles, I only know that it was a river turtle. I don’t remember where she lived with me, either in an aquarium, or in the box in which she arrived. But I’ll say right away that she stayed with me for a day.
I didn't have the Internet then. Therefore, for a more detailed study of the intricacies of care, I called my classmate, who, it seemed to me, was an expert on turtles. I got this opinion because she herself had a turtle at home. She came to me. A little sad, but ready to help. I asked her what happened and why she looked so sad. In response, I heard that she no longer had a turtle. This news gave me a little hope for a bright future for my newfound turtle. I invited her to pick it up. But the friend sadly refused, saying that her parents no longer allowed her to have a turtle.
She took the bag containing my turtle's supplies and began to pull out its contents. She told me how and when to give food and calcium and how to wash the turtle, and when she pulled out a brush, she smiled sadly and said that she had the same one. Then she left. And me and the turtle remained. I walked around her, trying to take her or at least touch her. But the turtle stretched out its head and, as it seemed to me, opened its mouth menacingly and squinted its eyes.
I called my grandfather. She said that the turtle is not for me. He suggested releasing it into the river that flows in our city. I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, but I took the box, asked my dad to put the turtle in it, and went to my grandfather. I carried the box very carefully and carefully, afraid that it would open and the turtle would get out.
We went to the river. Standing on the shore, I opened the box, and the turtle saw the world. She climbed out onto the grass and headed towards the water. A minute later she dived and quickly swam away. I was happy. Not only for the fact that this creature left my home, but also for the turtle itself. It seemed to me that she would feel much better in her natural habitat. Without suffering in captivity, crawling around the apartment and living in a box. I thought about the turtle and its future life and wished it happiness.
We went home with grandpa. On the way we talked about our animal, and I finally asked where he got this big turtle from. He simply answered me: “Sanya gave it to me from the yard, the dad of your classmate.”
What would you do with the turtle if you were me?
There is about 250 species of turtles, distributed mainly in warm areas of the world. They are easily recognized by their hard, box-shaped shell that protects almost the entire body. Land turtles inhabit all types of biotopes, including deserts, forests and mountains. Freshwater turtles live in rivers and ponds. They are slow and clumsy on land, but swim very quickly and deftly. Freshwater turtles make up the majority of the order. sea turtles form two separate families. Turtles have no teeth. They are replaced by hard and sharp horny ridges located along the edge of strong jaws. This horny “beak” allows turtles to bite off pieces of food. Some species of turtles are predators that hunt small animals. Others are herbivores. They swallow a pre-bitten piece of the plant whole, since they are not capable of chewing. Turtles reproduce by laying eggs, usually in a hole in the soil. The female buries the clutch in a warm place and leaves the eggs to develop on their own. Once hatched, the cubs do not receive parental care.
Most turtles are brown or green in color, blending in with their surroundings: dirt, leaves, or aquatic plants. This allows turtles to remain undetectable to passing prey or predators. The matamata, or fringed turtle, is a member of the snake-necked turtle family and has a rather unusual camouflage. The comb-like shell and flat head, covered with skin outgrowths, resemble a pile of mountains and leaves on the water. Having let the victim get closer, the matamata simply opens its mouth, sucking in water along with the victim.
Matamata is a turtle of very unusual appearance, about 40 cm in length, inhabiting the Amazon region. It has an arrow-shaped head and a very wide mouth, allowing it to swallow other aquatic animals.
The largest turtles were discovered on the Galapagos Islands, located in Pacific Ocean. These giants are so strong that they can easily ride a person. Each island of the Galapagos archipelago has its own subspecies of giant tortoises, differing in the size and shape of the shell or the length of the limbs. This diversity was also noticed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin during his visit to the islands in 1830. The variability of turtles, finches and other animals living on these islands led Darwin to believe that there was a process of evolution through natural selection. He described it in detail in the book "The Origin of Species", which became the basis modern biology.
The largest land tortoise is the Galapagos elephant tortoise. Its weight can reach more than 230 kg, and its shell size is 1.2 m in length.
The rounded carapace of the spiny trionix is covered with a leathery shell and has a small sharp protrusion in its front part. This species of turtles- good swimmers, and spend most of their lives in the water, catching fish. Largest freshwater turtle North America– vulture turtle. She has a rather large head and a rough, tuberculate shell. Inside the snapping turtle's mouth is a small, pink, fleshy growth resembling a worm that lifts the fish.
Turtles- one of the longest living animals. The average lifespan of box turtles from North America and Mediterranean turtles from Europe is more than 100 years. The Seychelles tortoise, brought in 1766 from the Seychelles to the island of Mauritius, lived there until 1918. She died of an accident at the age of 152 years.
The shell of turtles consists of two parts: the upper one - the carapace, and the lower one - the plastron. Each piece has two layers of plates that resemble puzzle pieces. They, in turn, consist of an inner bony part and an outer horny part, like typical reptile scales. The outer plates are called scutes. The carapkas and plastorns are connected at the sides, leaving holes for the turtle's head, legs and tail. The ribs and spine grow to the inner surface of the carapace.
Wood turtles catch worms, insects and grubs and can climb into bushes. They were at one time popular as pets, but over-trapping for these purposes has made them very rare in the wild.
The snapping turtle is an ambush predator found in lakes and ponds from Canada to Central America. Any small animals become its victims.
Major families of turtles
Snake-necked turtle
- About 30 types
- Freshwater
- Most have long necks
- Representatives: snake-necked turtles, matamata
Pelojedusa turtles
- About 20 types
- Mostly freshwater
- Representatives: pelomedusa, tartaruga, folding turtles
Snapping turtles
- 3 types
- Large head and long tail
- Live in water
- Representatives: snapping turtle, snapping turtle
Three-clawed turtles
- About 22 types
- Shell with a leathery shell
- Freshwater
- Representatives: trionics, narrow-headed and lobed turtles
Spiny turtles
- About 20 types
- Musk glands under the carapace produce a strong odor
- Live mainly in the input
- Representatives: spiny turtles, snapping turtles, musk turtles
Freshwater turtles
- About 85 species
- Well-developed shell, strong limbs, webbed feet
- Mostly aquatic, some terrestrial
- Representatives: box turtles, batagurs, forest turtle
Land turtles
- About 41 species
- Dome-shaped shell, strong hind limbs
- Land
- Representatives: gophers, flathead tortoises, quinixes, Mediterranean tortoises, giant tortoises