Cartoons often suggest turtles wear shells like removable armor. Those stories show turtles stepping out, swapping shells, or treating them like clothing. Biology disagrees. A turtle shell is not an ...

In cartoons, when a turtle is spooked, it retreats into and closes up its shell. While used for comic effect, this imagery is based in fact — although not all turtles are capable of this protective ...

If you liked this story, share it with other people. The forest hinge-back tortoise is an unusual animal whose shell can swing down 90 degrees in the rear to protect itself from predators. However, ...

For years, the Coleman family's fishing trips on the Alabama Gulf Coast were routine. But in 2021, their outing near a riverbank led to an odd find: the shell of a 32-million-year-old leatherback sea ...