Turtles are cute creatures, aren’t they? If you have ever seen one, you would notice that if you or anything gets too close to them, they just retreat back into their shells.
And if cartoons are to be believed, they can even completely come out of their shells, it’s no big deal.
Now, just like most of you, while I didn’t really believe the cartoons, for obvious reasons, what I didn’t know was that the shells actually act as a part of their skeletal system!
Which means, turtles are not just inside their shells, they are their shells.
Twitter user Adam McVean rightly points out (we also confirmed this independently) that unlike mollusks, which can leave their shells because they are a part of their exoskeleton, turtles, being vertebrates can’t leave their shells, because that’s their exoskeleton.
BTW, all cartoon representations of turtles hiding in their shells are wrong. It rather looks something like this.
Also, have you seen that picture of a turtle inside out? Yeah, that’s not an inside out picture either!
McVean has also let out some fun fact about these magnificent creatures. Apparently they breathe out of their butts.
These are amazing creatures borne out of millions of years of evolution, with some of them living up to 80 years while bigger ones can live up to 200 years. That’s something, isn’t it?