Turtle shells are very familiar to us, and we will always touch the shells of turtles in the process of breeding. For us players, it is important that the shell has a high ornamental value, so we tend to pay more attention to the shell, especially the attractive pattern of the back carapace. But there are many other secrets to the turtle shell, waiting for the careful you to discover its secrets.
PS: The classification of turtles in this article is mainly to classify turtles in a morphological taxonomic way rather than by genetic assays. Because the two have different emphases, even the same species of turtle may belong to different categories in these two different classifications. For example, the saw-edged turtle belongs to the genus Turtle in morphological classification, while in the genetic determination method, it belongs to the genus Closed Shell Turtle.
The reason for this title is that I remember that among the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there is one called "Leonardo da Vinci".
Let's get back to the point!
First of all, what is the shell of a turtle made of? The torso of the turtle is wrapped in a shield and bone plate, which make up the shell of the turtle.
The carapace of the turtle can be used as an important basis for distinguishing the turtle species, such as the number of shields and bone plates, and the shape and arrangement are some of the more important bases. Generally speaking, there are more than a dozen kinds of shields for turtles: vertebral shield, rib shield, edge shield, grouse shield (crotch shield), shield, neck shield, upper edge shield, strand shield, etc. Of course, with different varieties, there will be some shields missing. For example, some turtles do not have throat shields (such as the popular egg turtle razor), and so on. In addition, different turtle species may have different shapes of shields. It is precisely because some very similar turtle species have these differences in the carapace, so we can easily distinguish different turtle species from these differences.
In addition, because of the difference in turtle species, the following pictures do not actually include all the shield armor (in fact, as a turtle, it is impossible for all the shield armor to appear on it at the same time)
With these pictures, you can intuitively see the name of the shield on the turtle shell, which is much clearer than the text expression
It is also worth noting that the shape and size of the turtle's bone plate are different from the shape and size of the shield, and the shield mentioned above is a colored shield with the outer layer instead of an exposed bone plate
The following is the relationship between the bone plate and the shield, which is why the outer shield is not the same as the bone plate
▲1.Neck shield 2.Vertebral shield 3.Humeral shield 4.Edge shield 5.Gluteal shield 6.Neck plate 7.Lamina 8.Gluteal plate 9.Rib plate 10.Edge plate
▲1.Throat shield 2.Humeral shield 3.Chest shield 4.Abdominal shield 5.Strand shield 6.Anal shield 7.Edge shield 8.Armpit shield 9.Crotch shield 10.Upper plate 11.Inner plate 12.Tongue plate 13.Lower plate 14.Sword plate 15.Deck 16.Armpit plate 17.Crotch
To add, there are also some terms that appear frequently. For example, the lower tongue seam, the inner tongue seam, the lower sword seam and so on. These seams are named mainly according to their position in the two bone plates. For example, the lower tongue seam is the seam between the upper plate and the tongue plate; the inner tongue seam is the seam between the inner plate and the tongue plate; the sublingual seam is the seam between the tongue plate and the lower plate; the lower sword seam is the bone gap between the lower plate and the sword plate. The turtle's armor bridge is a structure that connects the dorsal carapace by the edge of the turtle's tongue plate and the lower plate, just like a bridge, so it has such a name.
▼The position of the shield of the dorsal and abdominal carapace
Having said all this theoretical knowledge, it is time to put these theories into practice. It is estimated that these living examples will be more concerned about it! In fact, there are many examples of turtle species distinguished by differences in carapace shields or bone plates. For example, species or subspecies are distinguished by the number of stripes of the dorsal carapace, and distinguished by the arrangement and number of shields and the number of strands (such as the number of strands of the mover-breasted turtle and the closed-shell turtle are different). There are so many examples of this in "Egg Turtle"! Because in terms of egg turtles, the previous people have prepared a good description, but since this is an example of egg turtles, I will reluctantly introduce it here.
Cut and dried......
1. Distinguish between giants and musk by carapace shield
The razor is the only species of musk turtle that does not have a throat shield, so the two species of turtles can be distinguished by whether there is a throat shield or not
The giant gaular scute in the picture above is the throat shield, and although the razor in the picture has an area that looks like a throat shield, it is actually not a real throat shield (the "absent" in English above is very interesting, and the word is "lacking").
axillary scute (armpit shield) inguinalscute (crotch shield, also translated as rat's shield), through the comparison, it is clear that the giant's two shields are much narrower than the razor's
2. The difference between The Florida Mud Turtle and the Oriental Mud Turtle
In the picture, the Florida mud turtle is on the left and the oriental mud turtle is on the right
From the above picture, it is not difficult to see that the difference between the carapace of the Oriental mud turtle and the Florida mud turtle mainly lies in the shape of the neck shield, the shape of the chest shield, the shape of the front of the shell, the shape of the nail bridge, and the overall shape of the abdominal carapace
3. Differences between the red-faced mud turtle and the white-throated mud turtle in the shield armor
▲The adults and juveniles above are: left: white-throated mud turtle Right: red-faced mud turtle
Diphtheria and the red side have a clear feature difference in the abdominal nail: the groove and posterior hinge of diphtheria are connected together, while the red side is separated
▲Some structural differences in the abdominal carapace in common egg turtles
4. A special case: The Malay fruit turtle
Finally, to add a special case, some turtle shields have increased in the case of good armor, such as the Malay fruit turtle, which has 6 vertebral shields.
Because many predecessors have identified some turtles through the carapace of the turtle, it is difficult to write out the original characteristics, so this article also did not add an original statement, and because they are not familiar with the graphic design, they can not draw some schematic diagrams, a considerable part of the pictures come from the network, but because some of the picture senders do not indicate the picture source and these pictures can be seen, the person who sent the picture is also reprinted, so I did not indicate the source of the picture, please forgive me! If there is infringement please contact me, I will delete.
Original author: Arovana
Manuscript Revision: Turtle
Editing typography: Turtle
Image source: Network
Photo gallery: Arovana & Turtles
Comments from Turtle:
The formation of turtle shells is simply a strange existence in all vertebrates, which has also attracted countless enthusiasts such as you and me to pay for it. Rollo's article mainly introduces the main structure of the turtle shell and the significance of the turtle shell for the identification of turtle species, which is already very detailed, but I personally feel that it may be better if I can explain the effect from the perspective of evolution and genetics. Finally, Guipu hopes that the beauty of the turtle shell will appear more in the hands of the turtle's origin and truly responsible players, rather than in the hands of art display cabinets or speculators who only have interests in their eyes.