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tortoises mainly consist of short, strong, stubby, legs, an upper shell, or carapace, a lower shell, or plastron, a tail, and a head. their feet have claws, which are used for digging and climbing. hard, scaly skin on their head and legs prevent them from drying out. Large scales, called scutes, cover the shell's bone and protect the tortoise. The tortoise's neck has flexible muscles and loose skin, so that the tortoise can pull its head inside the shell when it is in danger. |
| The testudinidae family (land tortoises) is the second largest family of chelonians. It includes 50 species. This family lives mainly in hotter areas such as: Africa, India,Southeast Asia, and South America A few of them live in areas that are cooler such as: Southern Europe, Western Asia, and Southern North America. |  |
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These two giant Galapagos tortoises are lounging in a pool of mud. They do this to cool down, since their large size does not allow them to lose heat very efficiently. They have relatively small surface area through which heat can escape. Soaking like this also helps remove external parasites such as ticks. |
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Tortoises come in many different sizes. This is a picture of a huge Aldabra tortoise and a speckled padloper. The speckled padloper generally grows to be four to six inches long, whereas the Aldabra tortoise can have a shell length of 40 inches and weigh up to 265 pounds. |
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This Aldabra tortoise has just swum up onto land after attempting to swim out to sea. This is common in Aldabra tortoises. They are mostly unable to swim and usually simply bob around in the water. However, they try nonetheless. |
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