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Adaptations: Turtles

By NICHOLAS GLAESER
Last updated 9 months ago
5 Questions

Video: Green Sea Turtle


A flat shell allows for a more streamlined body for swimming quickly (green sea turtles cannot retract their heads into their shells). Paddle-like flippers function as oars to aid in movement. Turtles don’t have teeth! Instead their jaws and beaks allow them to obtain food. Adult sea turtles are herbivores. Their saw-like teeth allow them to more easily eat sea grasses.





Video: Eastern Box Turtle


Its hard shell provides protection for its head and limbs. Long claws aid in burrowing and moving around the brushy forest floor. Its sharp beak helps it slice through vegetation for eating.

Why might a sea turtle not be able to retract its head into its shell?

5.10.A

What structures does a sea turtle have for protection if it cannot use its shell to hide?

5.10.A

Why might it be difficult for an Eastern Box Turtle to survive in the ocean?

5.10.A

Green Sea Turtles live in the ocean, spends most of its time underwater, are herbivores, and must migrate long distances in the ocean for feeding and nesting.

Drag each function below to the correct structure of the turtle.

  • streamline swimming and protection from predators
  • swimming and moving to feeding or nesting grounds
  • sawing and chewing seagrass
  • flat shell
  • paddle-like flippers
  • serrated beak
5.10.A

Eastern Box Turtles live in underbrush of the forest, prefer to eat green plants, hibernates during winter, and are known to burrow just beneath the surface.

Drag each function below to the correct structure of the turtle.

  • allow for easier digging and traversing their environment better
  • tearing food into smaller, bite-sized, pieces
  • protection from predators
  • hard shell
  • long claws
  • sharp beak
5.10.A