Turtles are quite fascinating indeed. As for the basics, they are reptiles, which means they're cold blooded, which in turn means that their body temperature changes with their environment.
They are one of the oldest creatures still alive today, in actuality they were around at least 50 million years before the first dinosaurs.
The different names of turtle, tortoise and terrapin seem to be a regional thing in English. British English breaks them into turtle if they live in the sea, tortoise if they live on land, and terrapin if they live in fresh water. American English commonly uses the turtle for all types, and Australian English breaks it into turtle for salt and fresh water, but tortoise for land species.
To avoid this confusion some veterinarians and scientists have resorted to using the term chelonian to describe all members of the order, based on the ancient Greek word for tortoise.
I'll pretty much refer to all types as turtles for most of these facts.
One more day until I'm on a plane heading to San Diego!
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