Tortoise: The Ultimate Slow And Steady Land Reptile.

A tortoise is a turtle, but a turtle is not a tortoise.

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While both are reptiles and belong to testudines family, the major difference between a turtle and tortoise is that tortoise dwell on land while turtle live in water or mostly near water.

They have a hard shell which is not a shell exactly but a composition of 60 bones. The upside of shell is known as carapace and the underside is soft shell known as plastron. Plastron is flat which helps tortoise to absorb heat from ground during day.

Tortoise belong to a testudines family and they are the longest living land animals in the world they have a life span of over 200 years.

They like to sunbathe, as they are diurnal. They remain active by taking up energy from environment during the day.

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Tortoise are herbivorous. They usually eat grass, flowers, leaf and fruits. They can run with speed of 0.17 mp/h to 5 mp/h varying on land, they move slow on dry land. Their average size is about 6-10 cm.

Tortoise have many different types of species depending upon condition of atmosphere, diet, size, colour. There are approx 280 species.

Tortoise don't have any teeth but they have hard mouth with ridges to mash up their food.

The gender of a tortoise can be identified with a shell notch which is present under the tail. Tortoise of V-shaped notch is male while the U-shaped notch is female.

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Female tortoise can lay 30 eggs at one time. They lay eggs in a burrow which is dug on ground and known as nesting burrows. The egg hatch in a period of 3-4 months and the size of new born depends upon the mother tortoise.

Most species of tortoise will hibernate themselves in winter and starve them to empty their stomachs so they can eat during summers.

Tortoise inspired the ancient roman military. The military formed a tortoise like formation and held shields up and in front to completely secure themselves from any attack.

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