[1] Currently, seven species are classified within the genus and 12 taxa are distinguished:[1] Box turtles have diploid somatic cells with 50 chromosomes.

The risk of death is greatest in small animals due to their size and weaker carapace and plastron.

Common predators are mammals like minks, skunks, raccoons, dogs and rodents, but also birds (e.g. crows, ravens) and snakes (e.g. racers, cottonmouths) are known to kill box turtles.

Invertebrates (amongst others insects, earth worms, millipedes) form the principal component, but the diet also consists for a large part (reports range from 30 to 90%) of vegetation.

[9] While reports exist that during their first five to six years, box turtles are primarily carnivorous and adults are mostly herbivorous, there is no scientific basis for such a difference.

The widest distributed species is the common box turtle which is found in the United States (subspecies carolina, major, bauri, triunguis; south-central, eastern, and southeastern parts) and Mexico (subspecies yukatana and mexicana; Yucatán peninsula and northeastern parts).

The single location where Coahuilan box turtles are found is a 360 km2 region characterized by marshes, permanent presence of water and several types of cacti.

Fossilized specimens of T. ornata and T. carolina were dated circa 5 million years before present and indicated that those main lineages also already diverged within the Miocene.

The only recognized extinct subspecies (T. c. putnami) dates from the Pliocene and was, with a carapace length of 30 cm (12 in), much larger than other species.

Some specimens will wander aimlessly until they die trying to find their original home if they are removed from the exact area that they grew up in.

It is recommended to buy captive-bred box turtles (in areas where this is allowed) to reduce the pressure put on the wild populations.

A similar study in Louisiana found that in a 41-month period, nearly 30,000 box turtles were taken from the wild for resale, many for export to Europe.

[22] "The turtle watches undisturbed as countless generations of faster 'hares' run by to quick oblivion, and is thus a model of patience for mankind, and a symbol of our State's unrelenting pursuit of great and lofty goals."

[28][29] In Pennsylvania, the eastern box turtle made it through one house of the legislature, but failed to win final naming in 2009.

In opposition one legislator had asked why Virginia would make an official emblem of an animal that retreats into its shell when frightened.