"Bertrand Russell, giving a lecture on astronomy, described how the earth orbits the sun which orbits and the movement of the sun about the galaxy. When he had finished, an old lady stood up and protested: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant turtle." Russell smiled and asked gently, "What is the turtle standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the woman. "But it's turtles all the way down."

Did this really happen? I thought it was a fable.

==

im from NA, never heard the world terrapin ,always called em either: turtles, sea turtles, or tortoises. this article is interestin but a bit too technical and i doubt its that accessible to 'normal folks' - anonymwikier

much needs to be added regarding the turtle in mythology and folklore. Kingturtle 17:59 31 May 2003 (UTC)

The Turtle page should have some pictures of non sea turtles too. Any one have a box turtle picture?sunja 12:07, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There's a picture of a land tortoise on the tortoise page.

If, as the header says, turtles include land tortoises as well, how come the only two major groups are sea turtles and fresh water turtles? Kappa 21:02, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)

turtles NOT tortoises or terrapins

This article states that "(Turtle is) a generic name for the group of reptiles which includes tortoises and terrapins" I've never heard anyone use the word turtle to refer to the whole group of reptiles. This article seems a little confused.

Here in america Turtle is the common title given to any terrapin or tortoise. sunja 05:56, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I am sure any thing can apply colloquaily, but do zoologists in the North Amercia do this? It's a bit like referring to calling all species of Bovinae cows. I'm not suggesting any change though as the generic term is well established, I'm just wondering if a terrapin or tortoise would be labelled as a turtle by any owner of one, even in North America? Dainamo 09:41, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If popular usage is any indication, most Americans would call any shelled reptile a "turtle". If it lives in the ocean, "sea turtle". But (at least in the Midwest), "terrapin" is not often heard. If you saw a beaked, shelled reptile in a stream, you would say "Look, a turtle!" At least I would! Gwimpey 04:49, 27 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Everyone I know uses 'cow' to refer to any bovine.

Regarding this issue in the main article---“Reanalysis of prior phylogenies that affirmed an anapsid ancestry suggests that their inclusion of turtles within Anapsida was due to both the starting assumption that they were anapsid (most prior phylogenies concerned what sort of anapsid they were) and also due to insufficiently broad sampling of fossil and extant taxa for construction of the cladogram. While the issue is far from resolved, most scientists now lean towards a Diapsid origin for turtles.”---would a Diapsid origin for turtles challenge the widely held belief that turtles existed at the beginning of the dinosaurs [about 300 million years ago]? Comments, please.

Do turtles molt?

no

There's not enough mention of turtle reproduction. I was surprised today to find out that they in fact bear a phallus. I thought both sexes reproduced using their cloacae...

Chelonia

Chelonia currently redirects to Turtle, but Chelonia is the monotypic genus containing the Green Sea Turtle. Shouldn't it be Chelonian-->Turtle, and Chelonia-->Green Sea Turtle? jimfbleak 2 July 2005 05:08 (UTC)

Yes you are right. I changed it. sunja 00:26, 14 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Testudines vs. Chelonia

The taxobox refers to the order Testudines, but the article says that turtles/tortoises/terrapins make up the order Chelonia. Can any biologists set this straight? Is this a case of old vs. new taxonomy? Gwimpey 04:45, 27 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]