Turtles can cry (amazing facts)

1. Sea turtles cry. The green sea turtle lives in the salty ocean, and gets rid of the excess salt from its body by way of its eyes, in very salty tears.

2. All turtles lay their eggs on land, even turtles that never come out of the water otherwise such as the giant sea
turtles.


3. Most turtles can live much longer than people can. One turtle was estimated to be fifty years old when it was
caught, and it lived another one hundred and fifty-two years after that!

4. Turtles are cold-blooded, like all reptiles. But the Blanding's Turtle, a common North American freshwater
species, has been seen swimming under the ice in the Great Lakes in winter.

5. Some water turtles can absorb oxygen through their skin on their necks and cloacal areas (their rear ends), so they can not only stay underwater for long periods, they can hibernate underwater.


6. Some land turtles can outrun a person on level ground. But they still can't outrun a hare.

7. A turtle's shell is made of over sixty bones all fused together, and they are connected to the bottom shell, so a
turtle can't really take off its shell like they do in the cartoons.

8. The largest turtle ever found was a fossil of a sea turtle that was over fifteen feet long! The largest turtle
species living now is the Leatherback Sea Turtle, which can grow to as large as nine feet long, six feet wide and can weigh over 1,000 pounds.

9. Some aquatic turtles such as the snapping turtle and soft-shelled turtles have eyes that let them easily look up. They can sit on the bottom under the water and look up for predators or food swimming by, or lay in shallow water with just their eyes and nostrils above the water so land predators can't see them.


10. No turtles have teeth. Instead they have a strong beak to cut and chew their food. Many also have sharp ridges on their beaks to saw through their food. Some turtles catch and eat fish; so those beaks work pretty well.