Fear the Turtles
Turtles are immortal. Seriously.
With its miserly metabolism and tranquil temperament, its capacity to forgo food and drink for months at a time, its redwood burl of a body shield, so well engineered it can withstand the impact of a stampeding wildebeest, the turtle is one of the longest-lived creatures Earth has known.
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Dr. Christopher J. Raxworthy, the associate curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, says the liver, lungs and kidneys of a centenarian turtle are virtually indistinguishable from those of its teenage counterpart, a Ponce de Leonic quality that has inspired investigators to begin examining the turtle genome for novel longevity genes.
“Turtles don’t really die of old age,†Dr. Raxworthy said. In fact, if turtles didn’t get eaten, crushed by an automobile or fall prey to a disease, he said, they might just live indefinitely.
6 Responses to “Fear the Turtles”
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Yes, turtles do live an amazingly long time. The only thing I can think of that lives longer are certain trees:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah/long.html
Maybe plants aren’t as interesting to some people, but I can’t fathom how long some of these trees have lived.
Luckily, turtles are so SLOW that they are nothing to fear!
Nothing to fear?
You will be singing a different tune on February 11th!
Turtles have impenetrable shells!
When a Blue Devil is tired, the turtle will suddenly emerge to viciously bite the blue devil!
Ryan,
Blue Devil? I thought we were talking about turtles. If you want to make a comparison though, you can go look up the NCAA tournament record and see the last time turtles made an appearance in the big dance. Then look up the last time the Blue Devils missed. Who do you think gets tired now?
Eeep.
Tiffany,
Slow and steady wins the race.