Turtle Facts

Slow-and-steady facts about turtles — ancient, resilient, and full of surprises.

Turtles (order Testudines) are among the most ancient reptile lineages still alive, with ancestors dating to approximately 220 million years ago — predating both the first mammals and the first dinosaurs. The roughly 360 known species occupy marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats across every continent except Antarctica. Turtle biology contains several verified surprises: sea turtles navigate using the Earth's magnetic field, detecting both the intensity and inclination angle of the field to maintain precise course over migrations of thousands of kilometres; female sea turtles return to the exact beach where they hatched to lay their own eggs, a fidelity behaviour called natal homing. Turtle shells are not a separate protective covering — they are fused to the vertebral column and ribs, making the shell an integral part of the skeleton.

Sea turtle nesting is temperature-dependent sex determination: the incubation temperature of the eggs determines the sex of the hatchlings, with warmer temperatures producing more females. This makes sea turtle populations particularly vulnerable to climate warming, as sustained temperature increases could skew sex ratios strongly toward females.