If a time machine could go two hundred years ago, millions of commercials would have awaited many amazing discoveries. The Mesozoic era reigned on Earth then, the famous Jurassic period - the era of the majestic dinosaurs. But besides the giant reptiles that have sunk into oblivion and other creatures that have disappeared from the face of the Earth, time travelers could find someone who still lives next to us. Reliably protected from all adversity by shell armor, the ancient turtles quietly crawled among tyrannosaurs, triceratops and yutaraptars. They survived all cataclysms, ice ages, asteroid falls and supervolcanic eruptions. Turtles can also be called time travelers - after all, time simply does not affect them.
ANCIENT, LIKE ROCKS
In fairness, it is worth noting that the turtles that lived on the planet two hundred and twenty million years ago, nevertheless, were slightly different from the reptiles we are used to - not so much in appearance as in physiology. The first turtle known to science - Odontochelys semitestacea (from Latin “tortoise without a shell”) - lived in the depths of the ocean and was distinguished by a unique structure of the shell, without a back shield. The beak of the great-grandmother of all turtles was studded with sharp teeth, with the help of which she tore the caught fish to pieces. The second oldest representative of turtles, proganochelis, could already boast of a fully formed shell, although it was not able to pull its head into it. The proganochelis also had teeth in its mouth, but they were useless for him - this turtle ancestor preferred a vegetarian diet.
The most impressive turtle of all time is by far the Archelon, the Cretaceous marine giant. Its shell was soft, like that of modern leatherback turtles, but its size and mass more than made up for the lack of protection. Archelon was five meters long and weighed over two tons! If he existed in our time, it would not have been difficult for him to bite an adult in half. On the other hand, this monster ate mainly on mollusks like large squids, which were found only at fair depths. Sailors of all times and peoples loved to tell stories about meeting giant turtles. Researchers do not exclude that some of these stories arose as a result of a collision of people with the miraculous surviving archelons. The likelihood of such a scenario is small, but still not excluded …
RIDE ME BIG TURTLE
Leatherback turtles of our days are not too inferior to their huge ancestors, growing up to two and a half meters, and deservedly keep the title of the largest reptiles on the planet. But their land brothers sometimes come with surprises. Take, for example, the famous elephant turtles found in the Galapagos Islands. Two meters in length, five hundred kilograms of weight - only ten people can lift such a turtle! Unfortunately for the herbivores and absolutely harmless hulks, people not so rarely picked them up in order to then start up for meat. At the beginning of the 19th century, after the discovery of the Gagapagos Islands by Europeans, the population of elephant turtles suffered greatly. Sailors used them as "live canned food", placing them in holds, where turtles could exist for months without food and water. In just one century, about two hundred thousand Galapagos turtles were eaten,which led to their extinction on many islands. At the beginning of the XX century, mankind came to its senses and began to restore the lost population. The number of turtles increased from three thousand in 1970 to twenty thousand at the beginning of the 21st century.
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The legendary Lonely George, one of the living symbols of nature conservation, belonged to the elephant turtles. He lived for about a hundred years and passed away in 2012 without leaving any offspring. Given that George was the only member of a small subspecies of the Abingdonian elephant turtles, his death saddened biologists around the world. Kindred George sometimes showed a longer life span - up to one hundred and seventy years in captivity.
THE WORLD AT THE EDGE OF THE PANTSIR
Turtles are one of the most revered animals in mythology and culture. Where other representatives of the fauna acted as a dual symbol with certain negative traits, the turtle has always been a positive symbol. Noting the slowness of the armored reptiles, people nevertheless respected them for their calmness and peacefulness. This, by the way, well sets off the fact that humanity has mainly dealt with land herbivores. Almost all water turtles are ferocious predators.
The turtle is present in many legends about the creation of the world - Malay, Iranian, Indian. According to some versions, it brings and incubates an egg, from which the Earth then appears, according to others, it carries the earth on its shell. To the well-recognized image of the universe - a flat disc lying on the shoulders of seven elephants, which in turn are held by a great turtle, we owe to the Hindus. It was later used by science fiction writer Terry Pratchett to describe his famous Discworld.
Taoism went even further, declaring the turtle not just the bearer of the world, but the very world in the flesh. The upper shell of the turtle symbolizes the dome of the sky, the lower (the so-called plastron) - the world ocean, and the body - in fact, our Earth. In many Taoist temples, it was customary to keep at least one turtle, which supposedly could determine the lifespan of visitors. The turtle was considered and is still considered a talisman that brings good luck and drives away adversity, it is a symbol of persistent movement forward.
The Chinese have always loved and revered turtles, for them she is the same sacred animal as the dragon, qilin and phoenix. It's funny that from this quartet, she is the only real animal.
In the fairy tales of modern society, the turtle mainly acts in the traditional role of a leisurely and wise mentor - like Tortilla from Buratino or Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda. But other options are also possible: for example, the dashing teenage mutant ninja turtles from the animated series of the same name.
CHAMPIONS OF SURVIVAL
Unfortunately, the myth of the turtles' wisdom has no solid foundation. Reptiles in general do not show miracles of ingenuity, only a few individuals lend themselves to simple training. The smartest by snail standards are freshwater red-eared turtles, one of the most popular pets. Of course, they will not be able to solve the crossword, but having got used to the owner, they will begin to recognize him unmistakably, follow him around the apartment (red-eared turtles need to be released for a walk from the aquaterrarium) and beg for something tasty.
However, one should not blame the turtles for being insane - they are specialists in other areas, primarily those related to survival. A couple of months without food or water? Easy. Jump over the hoop? No, jump yourself.
Think about it - their life strategy turned out to be so effective that even their appearance has remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years! Turtles crawl on the ground, swim under water, catch prey with powerful jaws or peacefully chew the grass, while the era changes around the era, dinosaurs and huge mammals die out, humanity gets out of caves and begins to build cities … They do not need to adapt to changes - they were originally perfect … It is not surprising that our ancestors fell in love with turtles so much - truly, they personify the inviolability of the universe.
Plus they are very cute.
Sergey Evtushenko