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 ...

Cartoons often suggest turtles wear shells like removable armor. Those stories show turtles stepping out, swapping shells, or treating them like clothing. Biology disagrees. A turtle shell is not an ...

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.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The broad-shelled river turtle (Chelodina expansa) falls into a group known as side-neck turtles.

There are a couple of key features that make a turtle a turtle: its shell, for one, but also its toothless beak. A newly-discovered fossil turtle that lived 228 million years ago is shedding light on ...

Feb. 13 (UPI) --The remains of an extinct giant turtle species suggest the reptile exhibited sexual dimorphism, with males boasting horned shells and females growing hornless shells. The turtle ...

Paleobiologists have discovered exceptional specimens in Venezuela and Colombia of an extinct giant freshwater turtle called Stupendemys. The carapace of this turtle, which is the largest ever known, ...

Scientists say a 260-million-year-old fossil from Africa is that of the earliest-known turtle, despite not having a shell, and marks the first branch of the turtle tree of life. Although it lacked the ...

Today's sea turtles are the sole survivors of a once diverse ecosystem of marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs. Sea turtles first appeared during the Cretaceous period, 130-140 million years ago ...