Some time ago, villagers in Nanyang Town, Henan Province, accidentally captured a giant turtle about 75 centimeters long and weighed 46 kilograms, which caused quite a stir. Many netizens are talking about the fact that turtles can grow so big!
However, the heat of the 46-pound giant turtle has just passed, and a post releasing giant turtle has once again aroused the surprise of netizens. A release enthusiast posted on a release forum that "released 196 kilograms of turtles" and uploaded pictures of released turtles.
Seeing giant turtles larger than one, many people began to speculate, whether there will be a bigger giant turtle. How old can turtles and tortoises grow?
In fact, the species of turtles and tortoises is very large, the small ones are only tens or hundreds of grams, and the large ones are beyond our imagination! As for how big they can grow, this begins with a legend in the Yellow River.
The Yellow River – an ancient and legendary river! The stories and legends about the Yellow River are innumerable.
Among them, in 1965, the legend of the Yellow River catching the "giant turtle" caused a sensation, and different versions of the story are still circulating on the Internet.
Here are two more interesting, and a little "mutual" version to share with you, borrowing the story also leads to the topic of "how big the turtle can grow".
Story version one
Legend has it that in 1965, in wuxia town, Shanxi, when the boat sailed in the Yellow River, people always felt that there was something in the water staring at the people on the boat. For the safety of the villagers in the future, the people in the village plan to catch things in the water.
According to legend, the people who participated in the fishing at that time were a total of 7 young and strong villagers.
After a period of catching, the villagers finally caught something in the water and found it to be a giant turtle. And the individual of this giant turtle also made everyone frightened. The giant turtle is three stories tall and the size of a truck!
It is said that the giant turtle was grumpy after being caught ashore and died in a frenzied state not long after.
The giant tortoise died, but its flesh was not thrown away by the villagers. So the seven villagers cut off the flesh of the giant turtle and made it into a food for food and wine.
However, something unexpected has come!
Just a few days after these 7 villagers ate the flesh of the giant turtle, they began to feel uncomfortable, as if they were seriously ill, and then they died within a few days.
The death of several people has also covered the giant turtle with a layer of "mystery". Locals believe that this is the resentment of the giant turtle before his death, which has turned into a "death curse"!
As for whether it is a "death curse", a reporter later asked the protagonist of the second version.
This is the first version of the story with a little bit of legend.
Story version two
In the past, there was a profession in the Yellow River, the river squirrel, and they were also called "river patrollers".
The main job of the river is to sit on a sampan boat and hold a "ghost whip" in hand, along the Yellow River to bring help to passing boatmen, boatmen, and villagers, helping them deal with some "emergency" incidents.
The second legend about the Yellow River giant turtle is also related to a river turtle at that time.
Also in 1965, also in Wuxia Town, Shanxi.
It is said that when the river boy was patrolling the Yellow River, he saw a three-story behemoth about the height of the river rising in the distance. Seeing more strange things, Kawako was not afraid, but quietly approached and looked carefully.
When he got closer, he found that this behemoth was actually a huge old turtle!
After seeing that it was only a "giant turtle", the river turtle went back to inform the villagers, and everyone tied a cable to the "giant turtle" and pulled it ashore. After pulling ashore, another truck was found, intending to pull the giant turtle away.
Just as the truck was about to pull away the giant turtle, which was about the same size as it, the giant turtle began to threaten! In its constant struggle and resistance, several villagers were injured. In the end, the "giant turtle" was sent to the truck and pulled away by the joint efforts of the villagers.
Later, in order to confirm the authenticity of the story, a reporter specially visited the river of that year.
The white-haired River Boy told reporters:
"There are three-story tall 'giant turtles'!" It's all getting bigger and bigger. At that time, i had caught a turtle, but it was only more than a hundred pounds, and then it was carried back by seven or eight people in the village, and the big guys killed and ate meat. ”
As for the reporter's question " After eating meat, do people really die , is there really a 'death curse'?" ”
The old man replied to him:
"There is no 'giant turtle' and no 'death curse'! It's just that the giant turtle has lived for a long time and has a lot of parasites on its body. It may be that while killing turtles, several people were infected. Then one person died, and the rest took the repellent, and there was nothing wrong. ”
About the two versions of the Yellow River "giant turtle" or "giant turtle", this is roughly the case.
Personally, I feel that the credibility of the second version is far greater than that of the first version. The so-called "death curse" in the first version, in the second version of the old man's answer, has been well explained by science.
In fact, there are so many "magical" things in the world!
After telling the story of the "giant turtle" of the Yellow River, let's take a look at the real creatures, how big can the turtles and turtles be?
Since the legend of the "giant turtle" in the Yellow River is only a giant turtle of more than 100 kilograms, as for the "three-story high" and "as big as a truck" are the results of more and more rumors, then is there really no large turtle turtle in reality?
The answer is yes! It's like the 196 kilograms of "turtles" that were released at the beginning.
In fact, this released "turtle" is neither a real turtle nor a farmed alien species "pearl turtle".
It is likely to be a striped turtle, also known as the "Indian small-headed turtle", the largest individual can grow to about 200 kg, mainly distributed in India, Nepal and other places, there is no species in China.
Although the turtle can grow to about 200 kilograms, they can only be considered large individuals in turtles and tortoises!
The largest turtles and tortoises on land are tortoises, which are mainly found on islands in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. Tortoises are vegetarians and feed on grass and cactus wild fruits.
The largest of these is the Galapagos tortoise, which can grow up to 1.5 meters in carapace and weighs more than 250 kilograms, while the largest Galapagos tortoise has a dorsal carapace of up to 1.8 meters and a weight of 375 kilograms.
Seeing this, does anyone think that the 375-kilogram Galapagos tortoise is the world's largest turtle?
Actually, neither is it! It is only the largest turtle on land.
The leatherback turtle that lives in the ocean is the largest turtle and turtle living in the world.
Their shells are more than 1.5 meters long, their body size is more than 2 meters, their average individual weight is more than 100 kg, the leatherback turtle weighs 300 to 500 kilograms in large individuals, and it is said that there are more than 700 kilograms of single-body leatherback turtles!
As for the larger individuals such as the ancient sea turtle and the ground-striped turtle, because they are extinct, we will not elaborate.
About the two puzzle versions of the Yellow River "giant turtle" in 1965, and how big the turtle turtles can grow, I will talk to you here.
If you have a better insight, feel free to share it in the comments section!