My page devoted to my first baby; my turtle, Crissy.
The word 'turtle' is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to talking about reptiles with shells on
their backs. Most people use the term 'turtle' as a generic for all such animals. But lucky for you,
I'm here to tell you otherwise! ;-)
The animals that most people refer to as turtles can be broken down into three sub categories.
Terrapins, Tortoises, and Turtles. (I'm not 100% sure on my spellings here, so bear with me.) To
explaine the differences between these three, I'll start with the terms I imagine people are more
familiar with.
Turtle
The Misconception: A turtle is more or less any reptile with a shell.
The Reality: A turtle is a shelled reptile who live almost exclusively in the water. Turtles
have flippers for feet which work great for swimming. However, flippers don't work all that great
on land. I imagine most people have see on some show or another footage of baby sea turtles flopping
toward the ocean. Sure they seem to scurry pretty quickly, but now imagine the same animal, only
a whole lot bigger. The scurrying doesn't go quite so fast anymore.
Tortois
The Misconception: A tortois is just a really big turtle.
The Reality: Not all tortoises are really big. Some species of tortois, when full grown, only
have a shell diameter of four inches. Not very big at all. Conversly, the largest
turtles/tortoises/terrapins in the world are a species of sea turtle (not a tortois). So then
what is a tortois you ask? A tortois is a land animal, and is not good for swimming at all. If a
tortois goes in the water, it will be walking along the bottom. A tortois' feet are more like paws.
they make for good walking, but nothing to help with the swimming.
Terrapin
The Misconception: Doesn't really have any because most people have never heard the word
before. People who have heard the word, generally tend to know what it is.
The Reality: Terrapins are kind of the jack-of-all-trades. They're both swimmers and walkers.
The key again lies in their feet. A terrapin's feet are built more like thoses of a tortois than
they are of those of a turtle. The difference is that a terrapin's toes are longer and more slender
than a tortois', and their toes are also webbed. The tortois-like structure gives them good mobility
on land, and the webbed toes make them capable swimmers.
Now what that's out of the way, I'll talk a bit about Crissy.
What is she? Crissy is a Red Eared Slider Terrapin. Never heard of that? Sure you have. More commonly
known as a Red Eared Turtle. I got Crissy as a gift for my 6th birthday (well, actually, I got her
a month before my Bday, but she was a Bday gift). That makes her about 15 years old. (almost old
enough to borrow the car... lol) Anyone who's seen her know's she's a monster of a turtle (I use
'turtle as a generic too). Picture a sheet of loose leaf paper, round off the corners, and then
you have a picture of how big her shell is. I'm not sure what else to say about my little monster.
Comming Soon:
Crissy Pictures!