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🦁 Animal world 🐊 Reptiles and amphibians

Turtles

Turtles

πŸ“– In short

A turtle spends most of its life in water, in seas, rivers or ponds. Like a tortoise, it has a hard shell that protects it like armor, but its shell is flatter to help it swim.

🀩 Did you know?

  • The first turtles lived more than 185 million years ago.
  • The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle, and can weigh more than 500 kilograms.
  • The temperature of the sand decides whether a baby turtle will be male or female.
  • Some turtles hold their breath underwater for hours while they sleep.

πŸ”Ž Find out more

🌟 Flippers instead of feet

Sea turtles have wide, flat limbs like flippers, which they move like wings to fly through the water. River turtles have webbed feet.

πŸ” The journey back to the beach

A sea turtle travels very long distances in the ocean, then returns to the beach where it was born to lay its eggs at night in a hole in the sand.

πŸ’‘ The babies' race

When the eggs hatch, the baby turtles climb out of the sand and rush to the sea, following the moonlight on the water and trying to escape birds and crabs.

🎯 Let's protect turtles

Sea turtles are in danger from plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish and eat. So we must never throw plastic in the sea or on the beach.

πŸ“Έ More pictures

Turtles
Turtles
Turtles

🧩 Test yourself

1 Where does a sea turtle lay its eggs?

2 Why is plastic harmful to sea turtles?

3 The first turtles lived more than ?? million years ago.

4 Which picture shows β€œTurtles”?

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πŸ“· Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons