Turtle basics
What is the scientific order that includes all turtles and tortoises?
Testudines
What is the name of the top part of a turtle's shell?
Carapace
What popular pet tortoise species is native to parts of Central Asia and is known for having four toes on each front foot?
Russian tortoise
What body part do turtles use to breathe air?
Lungs
Are turtles more closely related to lizards or to crocodilians and birds?
Crocodillians
What is the name for a turtle that lives primarily on land and is not adapted for an aquatic lifestyle?
Tortoise
What is the name of the bottom part of a turtle's shell?
Plastron
What freshwater turtle is recognizable by the red patch behind each eye and is one of the most commonly kept pet turtles?
Red eared slider
Are turtles ectothermic or endothermic?
Ecthothermic
What do turtles generally use instead of teeth to bite and cut their food?
What do we call a baby turtle when it first emerges from its egg?
Hatchling
What are the individual plates made of keratin that cover the shells of many turtles called?
Scutes
What enormous tortoise species is native to the Galápagos Islands?
Galapagos giant tortoise
What is the name of the process in which some turtles spend the winter in a state of greatly reduced activity in response to cold temperatures?
Brumation
True or false? The gender of sea turtles eggs are defendant on the kind of sand they are buried in.
False
Unlike most other reptiles, turtles have a rigid shell attached to their skeleton. What two major skeletal structures are incorporated into the shell?
Ribs and vertebrae
A turtle's shell is living tissue connected to its skeleton. Name one major bone structure incorporated into it.
Ribs or vertebrae
What is the only living turtle species with a soft, leathery shell that regularly undertakes long-distance ocean migrations and can travel into cold waters?
Leatherback sea turtle
Sea turtles use Earth's magnetic field, along with other cues, to help them do what during migration?
Navigate
What is a mass group nesting event, commonly done by sea turtles?
Arribada
What is the name of the group of turtles whose members have a flexible, leathery shell rather than a typical hard, bony shell covered in scutes?
Softshelled turtles (family: Trionychidae)
What is a shell primarily made of? (Not scutes or bone)
Calcium or keratin
What critically endangered tortoise species, native to Madagascar, is famous for its striking yellow-and-black shell pattern?
Ploughshare tortoise or radiated tortoise
Some aquatic turtles can exchange gases through specialized tissues in their -?
Clocha
What is the name of the giant tortoise species famously studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the HMS Beagle, helping shape his thinking about variation among organisms?
Galapagos giant tortoise or torts from the area