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A pair of Volcan Alcedo Giant Tortoises on Isabela Island in the Galapagos archipelago

Galapagos giant tortoise argument may threaten conservation efforts

23 April 2023

How many distinct species of Galapagos giant tortoises are there? The latest genetic study says at least five, disputing previous work, and the answer could have implications for their conservation


A Kemp's ridley sea turtle makes its way to the ocean on June 29, 2022, at West Dennis Beach in West Dennis, Massachusetts after eight months of rehabilitation at the New England Aquariums sea turtle rehabilitation center in Quincy. - Over 500 were found on the shores of Cape Cod cold-stunned in November and December of 2021. (Photo by Lauren Owens Lambert / AFP) (Photo by LAUREN OWENS LAMBERT/AFP via Getty Images)

Sea turtle strandings on the US east coast have increased drastically

27 February 2023

The number of cold-stunned sea turtles washing up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts has increased from dozens to hundreds within four decades


Robot turtle

Transforming turtle robot can walk on land and swim through water

12 October 2022

A morphable limb design allows this robot to flip between a sea turtle-like limb for swimming in water to a tortoise’s style for travel on land


An olive ridley turtle leaving its egg

Moving turtle eggs to protect them disrupts brain development

13 July 2022

Moving sea turtle eggs to protect them comes with its own risks, as the resulting hatchlings tend to be less well-developed than those that remain in their original location


Leatherback Sea Turtle

Baby leatherback turtles struggle to find the sea on dark nights

2 June 2022

Sea turtles have to dash into the sea after they hatch, but young leatherback turtles often get lost on the way because they have relatively poor eyesight


Decoy sea turtle eggs equipped with GPS help track down smugglers

Decoy sea turtle eggs equipped with GPS help track down smugglers

5 October 2020

The InvestEggator is a decoy egg with a GPS transmitter, which researchers placed in sea turtle nests in Costa Rica to track down where they are illegally sold


New Scientist Default Image

Prehistoric giant turtle shell is the biggest ever found

19 February 2020

The 2.4-metre-long shell found in the Tatacoa desert in Colombia belonged to a giant turtle called Stupendemys geographicus, which was twice the size of the leatherback turtle


brachiosaurus

Jurassic turtle may have been crushed underfoot by a giant dinosaur

6 September 2019

A fossilised turtle from the dinosaur era is flattened and damaged as if it has been stepped on – perhaps by an enormous sauropod dinosaur


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