November 2012 ~ Wild Life

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Tortoise or Turtle

5:36 AM Animalia, Chordata, cryptodira, reptilia, Tortoise, turtle, wallpapers No comments

Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles in the order Testudines. Like their marine relatives, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predatorsby a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge.

Female tortoises dig nesting burrows in which they lay from one to 30 eggs.Egg-laying typically occurs at night, after which the mother tortoise covers her clutch with sand, soil, and organic material. The eggs are left unattended, and depending on the species, take from 60 to 120 days to incubate. The size of the egg depends on the size of the mother and can be estimated by examining the width of the cloacal opening between the carapace andplastron.