10 totally awesome facts about turtles!
Check out these turt-ally mad facts about turtles!
Here at Nat Geo Kids we’re turtally mad about turtles, that’s why we’ve put together these ten terrific turtle facts!
These magnificent creatures come in all shapes and sizes and live in a number of different environments. They all belong to a group of reptiles called Testudines, which includes turtles, tortoises and terrapins.
From giant, slow-moving land-dwelling tortoises and snappy terrapins basking in their fresh-water lagoons, to the graceful strokes of a sea turtle gliding through our oceans – check out our ten totally awesome turtle facts, below!
Turtle facts
1. Turtles belong to one of the oldest reptile groups in the world – beating snakes, crocodiles and alligators!
2. These creatures date back to the time of the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago – woah!
3. Turtles are easily recognised by their bony, cartilaginous shell. This super-tough casing acts like a shield to protect them from predators – some turtles can even tuck their head up inside their shell for extra protection!
4. Just like your bones, a turtle’s shell is actually part of its skeleton. It’s made up of over 50 bones which include the turtle’s rib cage and spine.
Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable sea turtle primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!
5. Contrary to popular belief, a turtle cannot come out of its shell. The turtle’s shell grows with them, so it’s impossible for them to grow too big for it!
6. What a turtle eats depends on the environment it lives in. Land-dwelling turtles will munch on beetles, fruit and grass, whereas sea dwellers will gobble everything from algae to squid and jellyfish.
7. Some turtles are carnivores (meat eaters), others are herbivores (plant eaters) and some are omnivores (a mixture of the two!). Many baby turtles start life as carnivores but grow to eat more plants as they mature.
8. Turtles are ‘amniotes’ – they breathe air and lay their eggs on land, although many species live in or around water.
9. These cold-blooded creatures have an incredibly long life span. The oldest ever recorded, named Tu”i Malila, of Tonga Island, passed away at the grand old age of 188!
10. Sadly, many species of turtle are endangered! 129 of approximately 300 species of turtle and tortoise on Earth today are either vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, according to the IUCN. Threats include loss of habitat, pollution, poaching and the illegal pet trade.
Do you turt-ally love turtles? Then get to know some awesome species with our great green turtle facts, swimmingly good loggerhead turtle facts AND fab leatherback turtle facts.
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Awesome!
it is sad they are in danger.
thanks for these intresting facts
This really helped me learn about turtles and gave me loads of interesting facts! Thanks National Geographic
COOL!!!!!!!
COOL!
this was helpful and AMAZING
LETS GO
AMAZING. It relly helped on my reseach
Wow
WOW!
WOW!
LET'S TAKE ACTION TO SAVE THE SEA TURTLES
Save the turtles sksksksksksk
I love turtles!!
Save the sea turtles!
Don't let them get hurt! I love them to much! Help them PLEASE!
I realy loved these 10 facts they helped me so much! but I am sad some turtles are indangerd
ALL TURTLES R AMAZING!!!
So useful for my homework!!!
cute
sea turtles are so cool
Cant wait
WOW
amazing!
This has really inspired me to help all sea life creatures. Well done for making this. :)
im using this for reshearch thank you
I WUV SEA TURTLE
I LOVE SEA TURTLES
Let's take action and save the turtles because I like turtle they are the best
important
CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow
this is great
GOOD FAST FACTS
Wow lol
wow
Wow
sooooo cute
I LOVE TURTLES
Cool
Great turtle facts!
Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow
nice
"With so many different types of turtle, there is no average size. The largest sea turtle species is the leatherback turtle. It weighs 600 to 1,500 lbs. (272 to 680 kilograms) and is about 4.5 to 5.25 feet (139 to 160 centimeters) long, according to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF)." This Live Science introduction to turtles includes details about their habitats, taxonomy, diet, offspring and other interesting facts.
turtles are my fav sea animals! but my sister said that turtles eat jellyfish and they look like plastic so their endangered! save these turtle! :c
Hi I like turtles
SAVE THE TURTLES :D
Love turtles
I like it
This is great
cool! i like all theses cool facts thanks
I liked it but there was too much words and this is natgeo kids for kids to read and if I were a kid I wouldn't want to read it. Maybe add a bit more pictures and less words. But overall I really liked the facts ad the were very interesting
SAVE DEM TURTLES NOW OR ELSE D: D:
Wow I love your page
I learned about turtles
Turtles are my favourite animal in the world
WOW!!!!!
I love sea turtles, especially leatherbacks, and I didn't know they're shells. I also didn't know some were land dwelling. I hope we can help turtles. Long live turtles.
i love turtles
These animals are my absolute fav and it was so fun learning more about their interesting life
Awesome
nice
nice
Amaze
turtles are my favourite reptile so l loove these facts
Intresting
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that is cool
i love theses turtle facts
I LOVE TO STUDY ABOUT ANIMALS AND TURTLES ARE THE MOST AMAZING ANIMALS I HAVE STUDIED.
These facts are amazing!
its amazing
amazing
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ⒸⓄⓄⓁ
the turtel is soooooooooooooo cute
I never new those things thanks xxx
Thank you for helping me with my sea turtle project
Yayayayayayay
Help save the TURTLES !
Turtles are so old!
WOW I NEVER KNEW THIS!!! :) :P
I love turtles so it was good to find more facts about them.
SAVE THE CUTE LOVABLE TURTLES
i love turtles thanks for the awesome facts
awesome thank you sooooooooo much National Geographic kids
Good facts
I love all the animals in the ocean and on land but this particular ocean animal really hooks my interest. Thank you so much for the fantastic facts!
i love turtles so it was good to find out information
I think turtles are awesome animals. We should save turtles because they are very endangered from all of the plastic and rubbish we throw in the ocean.
Turtles are cute
I feel so sad because I love turtles!
i love turtles i learnt so much THANK YOU
OMG!! who knew turtles were so adorbes and so fun to learn about?!
Your facts are AMAZING
Love the facts I saved 18 baby turtles heading away from the sea
I learnt so much!!!
It's amazing I love it THANKS!!!
I love these facts! I already know a lot about turtles but after reading this it improved my knowledge!
I think that turtles are amazing! My favorite animal is totally a turtle. Turtles are so cute! After reading this I know way more facts.
Turtles are so cute.
This really has some great facts about the life of a turtle!
Turtally awesome
I love TURTLES!!!!
I love to study about. animals and turtles are the most amazing animals I have studied about
This is so cool! I love turtles and when I saw this I loved it!
Turtles are amazing
turtles are the best
Did you know some turtles are endangered because they get mistaken by plastic bags thinking it is a jellyfish. I LOVE TURTLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL!
Lol
I love turtles! Cool and awesome
I liked those facts about turtles and I never knew that they could eat jellyfish.
Turtles are so amazing
Turtles are so amaizing
turtles are amazing!!!!!!!!!
lol so cool
Wow
Really interesting
I think this is really awesome and is interesting
I love turtles
Turtles are one of my favourite animals
Love the turtle facts!
Turtles R Amazing,help get them off the endangered species list!!!
turtles are the best creatures ever
Now I know facts about Turtles
Thanks. These turtle facts are indeed turtally awesome.
It's jenny again. I also wanted to add that I think what your doing is great. Your spreading awareness about endangered animals and I think that is amazing because animals can't talk and they have no way of protecting themselves like saying "stop endangering our species by littering in the ocean" and i think you doing that is really sending a message to people. I love turtles and I didn't even know some of them are endangered and now I know that for example.
Love this page, it is so easy to use and great for kids with its bright colours and cool fonts!! You should add more quizzes that are longer, a suggestion is maybe like what type of cat are you? I know National Geographic is a very respectable company but maybe you could just do that for the kids page. It would attract many more viewers and would be fun to participate in and read!! I love animals too and enjoy reading about them so I love this page. - Jenny
This is my favourite animal we gotta take action
I like turtles now because they are so Beautiful
Sad but superb
I never knew turtles eat jellyfish!
I love turtles!
Turtles are my favourite animal!
turtles are amazing
Our favourite fact was turtles are the closest relative to dinosaurs
I love every thing about turtles. They are so awesome! I already know lots about them but this added to my knowledge. I love learning about animals!!! How can a kid like me help these amazing creatures? Thanks so much!
I love turtles lol
Wow turtles endangered?
I love turtles! Maybe their ability to live a long time could hold some answers for researchers looking to extend human life. And I bet that like most animals they are a lot cleverer than humans think, if only we could communicate with them.
Turtles are great! Good facts team
Wow! I never knew any of those things about turtles!
I love the turtle facts, it is sad that they are endangered.
I love learning about turtles so much. They are the best animal in the oceans. My mum loves your killer whales too much like me that I love the females turtles the most.
i love turtles
I love turtles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Turtles are my favourite animals. I really want to have a pet turtle so that I can help them to stay alive!
i liked the facts, it`s fun to learn , but i don`t like the last one because that is sad & i do not like that the turtles are endangered
We need to save the turtles! They matter as much as we do! #SaveTheTurtles!
turtles are so cute why would any one want o hurt them they are harmless plus what did they ever do to the poachers ? NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cool facts, they have taught me a good lesson !!
Wow! Turtles sound awesome, I rarely get to go out on walks to places cause my mum has an illness called pots but this website has helped me learn about animals even so!
i feel sorry for turtles
Turtles are awesome
U gotta love turtles
wow! I have never known that much about turtles I am going to write a story about all these facts on turtles these are amazing going to learn about the other animals and maybe write stories about all of the animals I can learn about. your website is awesome
awesome turtle facts
My favourite animal are turtles!
AWSOME I LOVE TURTLES!
turtles are AWESOME!! and these facts are 100% true
turtles are awsome
Cool facts! I enjoyed reading them!
I think the facts about the turtles are amazing
SAVE DE TURTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COOL! Turtle facts I didnt know turtles belonged to older reptiles!
I love turtles they are amazing and I voted for them in whats your favourite animal!
I love turtles
Love turtles. Those facts are great facts, National Geographic! Keep up the good work!
Amazing turtles! :D
I think your turtle facts were very interesting and I liked them. (Alexander, age 6)
This was very interesting telling me about turtles. It told me things that I never knew about the species.
Interesting facts - I didnt know any of them before!
I love national geographic!I love turtles
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