Cartoons often suggest turtles wear shells like removable armor. Those stories show turtles stepping out, swapping shells, or ...

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 ...

A sea turtle’s shell is living bone fused directly to its spine and ribs. It is not a detachable shield or an external case, ...

Touren Pope was rockhounding in the Greater Green River Basin when he found a remarkable foot-long fossil. It turned out to be the shell of a ...

I have two turtles, ages 55 and 35. They have been healthy for almost their entire lives. I’ve never had to take them to the vet but recently, one of them developed a hole in their carapace on the ...

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 ...

Turtles today are often slow-moving, modestly sized creatures, but their ancient relatives were quite different. Long before ...