♪ [upbeat music]
(Bruce Doran) Hello, my name is Bruce Doran
and I'm one of the staff scientists that works here on the third floor
and we get a lot of people who come here on the third floor
asking us one particular question about turtles.
"Can turtles come out of their shell?"
And in order to answer that question,
we need to better understand the biology of turtles.
So this is Turtle Biology 101.
So this is a Blanding's turtle.
It's one of the turtles that we have here at Science North
and turtles all share similar features.
If you look at the head,
she's actually got a very long neck,
which she use to catch her food
or if she flips on her back she can actually use her strong neck
to kinda flip back on her stomach.
Instead of teeth,
all turtles actually have a very sharp beak,
or almost beak-like lips,
which they use to rip their prey apart,
which is usually fish in this case.
Turtles have these very strong claws,
which they use to climb on surfaces,
dig nests or in a case of this turtle
will actually also rip food apart using their claws.
Turtles, also, you can tell the difference between male and female turtles
by looking at their tail.
And to tell the difference between the male and female turtle,
you look for the cloaca, which is the common exit for,
you know, the reproductive system,
the digestive system and urinative system.
In case of female,
the cloaca is close to the edge of the shell.
In the case of males,
the cloaca is closer to the tip of the tale.
So you can tell male female turtles by looking at the tail.
Last feature that all turtles have in common is this shell.
So the upper part of the shell, we call it the carapace,
whereas the lower part of the shell we call the plastron.
So let's take a closer look at the shell.
So this is a replica of turtle skeleton.
It's actually made up of plastic
but it looks exactly like a real turtle skeleton.
So what has been done is that the plastron,
the belly part of the shell has actually been removed and put in the back
so we can actually see inside the turtle shell.
Now, the turtle shell is actually made up of bone,
the same bones as us,
and the outer part of the shell is made up of keratin,
the same stuff as your fingernails.
Now what's really neat is whenever a turtle grows,
it will actually lose those little keratin layers that we call scutes.
Now when we look at the turtle shell a little bit closer,
we notice how the backbone is actually fused to the shell.
In fact, the shell is actually part of its skeleton or skeletal system.
So just like us,
we can't come out of our skeleton;
turtles cannot come out of their shell.
So the shell is actually part of their body.
So whenever a turtle grows,
the shell will also grow with them.
Now one interesting feature I want you guys to look at is this part.
This is the four legs,
they're the upper legs
and this structure here is called the scapula,
or their shoulder blade.
And the position of the shoulder blade is very weird in turtles
compared to say,
most other animals including humans.
So this is a replica skeleton of a human.
Now this is what the skeleton will actually look like.
In the shoulder blade of the human is actually found dorsally,
on it's back.
And the shoulder blade, or a scapula,
serves as attachment points for muscles
so that you can actually move your arm.
So in the case of humans and most other animals,
it's found dorsally, on the back.
But in case of turtles, it's really weird.
The scapula is actually found in the front.
And the reason for that,
the scapula can't be in the back because the shell's already there.
So what's really interesting is as the turtle develops in its egg,
the scapula will actually migrate towards the front
and this will allow the turtle to still be able to move its front legs
and still have that protective shell layer which it needs
in order to protect itself from predators.
So I hope you learned a lot about turtles
and now that you can answer the question,
can turtles come out of their shell?
So if you want to learn more about turtles or see them,
you are more than welcome to join us here at Science North.