Tortoise

For other uses, see Tortoise (disambiguation).

A tortoise is a reptile of the order Testudines which lives on land. Like their aquatic cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. Most are quite small, but island tortoises have several times evolved to a large size: those on the Galapagos are famous. Darwin made one of his rare mistakes when he did not note which island each of them came from. Later it became clear that they were slightly different on different islands.

Tortoises
Aldabra giant tortoise (Geochelone gigantea) from Aldabra atoll in the Seychelles.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Testudinidae

Further reading

• Chambers, Paul. A sheltered life: the unexpected history of the giant tortoise. John Murray (Publishers), London. 2004. ISBN 0-7195-6528-6.
• Gerlach, Justin. Giant tortoises of the Indian Ocean. Chimiara publishers, Frankfurt. 2004

Gallery

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  A baby Testudo marginata emerges from its shell

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  Aldabra Giant Tortoise Geochelone gigantea

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  Galápagos tortoise on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos Islands

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  Gigantic galapagos turtle, Chelonoidis nigra on the island of Santa Cruz

Tortoise Media

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  Tile with two rabbits, two snakes, and a tortoise, illustration for Zakariya al-Qazwini's book ʿAjāʾib al-makhlūqāt, Iran, 19th century.

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  Adult male leopard tortoise, South Africa

• This is a video I have taken of my tortoise (most likely Herman's) laying eggs to a hole it dug. It mated (video) and out of three eggs only one tortoise (photo) hatched and survived.

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  Young African sulcata tortoise

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  Baby tortoise feeding on lettuce

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  Tortoise feeding on a cactus

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  Skeleton of Testudo tortoise

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  A skeleton of Aldabra giant tortoise found in Cousin Island (Seychelles).

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  Fossil of the extinct Ergilemys insolitus

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  Bas-relief from Angkor Wat, Cambodia, shows Samudra manthan-Vishnu in the centre, his turtle Avatar Kurma below, asuras and devas to left and right

Related pages

• Turtle
• Sea turtle

Other websites

• Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Society* Tortoise World - Several Types of Tortoises Archived 2007-08-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Chelonia: Conservation and Care of Turtles.
• Infotortuga