[5][6][7][8] In America, for example, the members of the genus Terrapene dwell on land, yet are referred to as box turtles rather than tortoises.

[8] In Britain, terrapin is used to refer to a larger group of semiaquatic turtles than the restricted meaning in America.

[10] Some Australian experts disapprove of this usage—believing that the term tortoises is "better confined to purely terrestrial animals with very different habits and needs, none of which are found in this country"—and promote the use of the term "freshwater turtle" to describe Australia's primarily aquatic members of the order Testudines because it avoids misleading use of the word "tortoise" and also is a useful distinction from marine turtles.

Egg-laying typically occurs at night, after which the mother tortoise covers her clutch with sand, soil, and organic material.

The plastron of a female tortoise often has a noticeable V-shaped notch below the tail which facilitates passing the eggs.

Upon completion of the incubation period, a fully formed hatchling uses an egg tooth to break out of its shell.

They are hatched with an embryonic egg sac which serves as a source of nutrition for the first three to seven days until they have the strength and mobility to find food.

For example, the young of a strictly herbivorous species commonly will consume worms or insect larvae for additional protein.

[12] The number of concentric rings on the carapace, much like the cross-section of a tree, can sometimes give a clue to how old the animal is, but, since the growth depends highly on the accessibility of food and water, a tortoise that has access to plenty of forage (or is regularly fed by its owner) with no seasonal variation will have no noticeable rings.

Tu'i Malila remained in the care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965, at the age of 188.

Adwaita (also spelled Addwaita) was an Aldabra giant tortoise brought to India by Lord Wellesley, who handed it over to the Alipur Zoological Gardens in 1875 when the zoo was set up.

[19] DNA analysis of the genomes of the long-lived tortoises, Lonesome George, the iconic last member of Chelonoidis abingdonii, and the Aldabra giant tortoise Aldabrachelys gigantea led to the detection of lineage-specific variants affecting DNA repair genes that might contribute to their long lifespan.

Red-footed tortoises, from Central and South America, do not have an area in the brain called the hippocampus, which relates to emotion, learning, memory and spatial navigation.

[22] In the 17th century, Francesco Redi performed an experiment that involved removing the brain of a land tortoise, which then proceeded to live six months.

They live in diverse habitats, including deserts, arid grasslands, and scrub to wet evergreen forests, and from sea level to mountains.

Many of these giant tortoises are not closely related (belonging to different genera such as Megalochelys, Chelonoidis, Centrochelys, Aldabrachelys, Cylindraspis, and Hesperotestudo), but are thought to have independently evolved large body size through convergent evolution.

Giant tortoises are notably absent from Australasia and many south Pacific islands, but the distantly related meiolaniid turtles are thought to have filled the same niche.

[28]Tortoises are generally considered to be strict herbivores, feeding on grasses, weeds, leafy greens, flowers, and some fruits.

[29] Pet tortoises typically require diets based on wild grasses, weeds, leafy greens and certain flowers.

Ergilemys Manouria Gopherus Indotestudo Testudo Malacochersus Centrochelys sulcata Geochelone platynota Geochelone elegans Chersina Homopus Stigmochelys Psammobates Aldabrachelys Pyxis Astrochelys radiata Astrochelys yniphora Kinixys Chelonoidis A separate phylogeny via mtDNA analysis was found by Kehlmaier et al. (2021):[50] Manouria Gopherus Testudo Indotestudo Agrionemys Malacochersus †Cylindraspis Chersina Chersobius Homopus Psammobates Stigmochelys Aldabrachelys Pyxis Astrochelys Kinixys Centrochelys Geochelone Chelonoidis In 2023 Kehlmaier again recovered a very similar phylogeny to the 2021 one, which further reaffirmed the evolutionary distinctiveness of the extinct Cylindraspis, but swapped the position of Gopherus and Manouria, making Gopherus the most basal genus.

A mountain was placed on his back by the other gods so they could churn the sea and find the ancient treasures of the Vedic peoples.