Turtles
These uniquely designed creatures continue to defy evolutionary explanation …
by Paula Weston
With its armoured shell, thick leathery skin and slow movement, the turtle is one
of the most easily recognized creatures on earth.
Generally, the marine-dwelling species are known as turtles, and their land-dwelling
counterparts as tortoises. But in the United Kingdom almost all are called tortoises
(terrapin is the name given to the smaller species commonly used for food). Those
on land have short sturdy legs, while those living in marine environments possess
powerful flippers, or paddles, for swimming.
Despite differences in size, diet, and shell design, there are really only two main
types of turtles: the straight necks (Cryptodira) and side necks (Pleurodira),1 terms which refer to the way the
turtle withdraws its neck into its shell. This suggests that turtles, all now classified
in the reptile order Chelonia, were originally created in at least two
separate basic kinds.
Gary Bell © www.oceanwideimages.com
The female turtles will often navigate unerringly over vast distances to return
to the same beach, skillfully excavating depressions of sand in order to deposit,
then cover, their precious load of fertilized eggs.
The protective shell, an integral part of the turtle’s anatomy, is a casing
of bone covered by horny shields (except for the soft-shelled tortoise and the leatherback
turtle). Plates of bone are fused with ribs, vertebrae and parts of the shoulder
and hip. Although shells vary from family to family, the basic structure remains
the same.
As such, because the turtle’s ribs are immovable, it is unable to breathe
like other reptiles (or, for that matter, like man). Instead, abdominal muscles
perform the function of the ribs: two muscles enlarge the chest cavity to breathe
in, and others press the organs against the lungs to force the air out.2
The giant among the living turtles is the marine leatherback, which can grow up
to about 2.7 metres long (8.9 feet) with a body mass of about 680 kilograms (1,500
pounds); the largest land turtle is the Galápagos tortoise at 255
kilograms (560 pounds).3
‘Living fossil’ turtle evidence—no evolution
The fossil turtle Allaeochelys crassesculptata shown below is from Germany’s
Messel oil shale.
Note how the two beautifully preserved fossil specimens appear to have been buried
together catastrophically. They are practically identical with the living Carettochelys
insculpta shown just below it (photo available in Creation magazine).
This turtle, which has a slippery skin over its domed carapace, inhabits Papua New
Guinea and the northern tip of Australia (the specimen shown is still alive at Joachim
Scheven’s superb museum Lebendige Vorwelt, in Hagen, Germany. Photos
and information were kindly supplied by Dr Scheven).
According to evolutionary belief, some 50 million years have supposedly passed between
the two. The evidence indicates otherwise.
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Although there are plenty of stories about the longevity of turtles, they do not
need long periods of time to grow. They are generally fully grown within 10 years,
and growth in a large species may be more rapid than in man.4
There is anecdotal evidence of turtles living for more than 150 years, though some
experts consider this may be due to confusing two separate turtles whose periods
of captivity overlapped.5
Young Loggerhead turtles have an amazing navigation system, involving detecting
magnetic fields—see Turtles can read magnetic maps.
One of the most spectacular sights in the wild is that of a marine turtle laying
its eggs on the beach at night, and the subsequent dash of the hatchlings to the
water. The female green turtle (Chelonia mydas) crawls up the beach to
a point above the high tide line and excavates a shallow depression, using all four
flippers, then digs an egg pit in the bottom of the depression. The sand is removed
by hind flippers, used alternately. Incredibly, the flipper is curved and gently
lowered to get and transport its load, a feat often performed without loss of sand.
A final flip sends the sand directly backward and clear of the hole.
The female then deposits the eggs, usually two at a time (a clutch, as the nest
of eggs is called, can have between 100 and 200 eggs), and carefully covers them.
Before leaving, she hides the evidence of her activity by flinging sand about with
her front flippers. The whole process takes a few hours.4
The time needed for the eggs to hatch depends on the heat of the sun. When the tiny
turtles finally emerge, they instinctively make their way to the water. However,
a host of opportunistic predators ensures that only a few make it out to the safety
of deep water. Fish hawks and sea birds somehow seem to know when the hatchlings
are due and are ready when they make their appearance. Even at the water’s
edge the ordeal is by no means over, with sharks and other predatory fish continually
cruising the shallow water. The hatchling’s flippers are surprisingly long
for its size, which heightens its chances for survival.
Given the incredibly specific features of turtle anatomy, it should be easy (if
evolution were true) to trace its supposed evolutionary roots. The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica boldly claims that ‘the evolution of the turtle is one
of the most remarkable in the history of the vertebrates.’ However, in the
very next sentence it states: ‘Unfortunately the origin of this highly successful
order is obscured by the lack of early fossils, although turtles leave more and
better fossil remains than do other vertebrates.’2
Evolutionists claim turtles first appeared during the Triassic Period (supposedly
200 million years ago), when they were ‘numerous and in possession of basic
turtle characteristics.’ Turtles allegedly sprang from the ‘primitive’
reptiles called cotylosaurs, yet intermediates are ‘completely lacking.’2
Faced with this glaring lack of evolutionary evidence, Britannica asserts:
‘The turtles however, have plodded a stolid and steady course through evolutionary
time, changing very little in basic structure [emphasis added].’6
Dr Duane Gish, in his book
Evolution: The Fossils Still Say NO! 7,
says that given the amazingly unique structure of turtles, it should be a rather
easy task to find the transitional forms to trace the evolutionary path from ancestral
reptile to turtle, if that is in fact what has happened. He explains that the changes
would not be subtle, but obvious, even to someone with no training in anatomy or
paleontology.
Yet not one transitional form has ever been discovered. Dr Gish quotes a series
of evolutionists, each freely admitting to this truth. One such comment comes from
Colbert and Morales: ‘The first true turtles made their appearance by the
late part of the Triassic period, by which time they were far advanced along the
lines of adaptive radiation typical of modern turtles ... .’8
Creationist Randall Martin also makes a valid point in questioning why a reptile
would need to develop a protective shell on its back (if turtles really did evolve
from non-shelled reptiles as claimed). Surely, he says, an incomplete shell would
give little protection. Any tiny advantage would be far outweighed by the serious
disadvantages of a cumbersome hindrance in getting away from predators.9
The biblical account of Creation in Genesis 1—animals created to reproduce
after their kinds—would mean that turtles should be instantly recognizable
as turtles, with the shell and other unique features fully formed from the start,7 and no series of ‘pre-turtle ancestors’
should be found. It is obvious that the fossil record of turtles gives powerful
support to biblical Creation, and stands opposed to the idea of evolution.
Turtle tid-bits!
- The green turtle is the most widely eaten species of reptile (particularly popular
as turtle soup), and the giant Galápagos tortoise almost became extinct in
the 19th century, because it was popular food for seafarers.1 Turtles, except for several extinct species,
lack teeth, having instead upper and lower horny plates that serve to bite off chunks
of food.
- Even without teeth, turtles can be dangerous. Temminck’s Snapper (the snapping
turtle) is renowned for snapping and biting viciously at everything placed within
its reach, using its powerful cutting beak. Many cases of serious injuries have
been recorded where people have happened to swim too near these snap-happy creatures.
The larger ones of these have also been known to drag under and devour large ducks
and even geese.2
- The shell of the box turtle (Terrapene) is so strong it can readily support
a weight 200 times greater than its own; a man with proportionate supporting power
could bear up two large African elephants!3
- Although they may be able to determine airborne sounds, turtles do not rely on hearing.
Instead, they appear to depend heavily on their sense of smell, and they also see
well. Turtles rarely emit sounds, except when mating, and probably communicate through
visual signals. (Some tortoises have glands to secrete chemicals, which they use
to mark their territories.)
- Land tortoises are vegetarian, eating leaves, grass, and in some cases even cactus.
Turtles generally prefer small invertebrates such as worms, snails, slugs, and crustaceans,
while the larger marine turtles are able to catch fish.
- Proverbially, the tortoise is one of the slowest animals alive today, but while
this may be true for the land dwellers, aquatic turtles are known to travel quite
a bit faster, even when on land.
References and notes
- The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 26:688, 15th Edition, 1992.
Return to text.
- Hutchinson’s Animals of all Countries, Part XXVI, Hutchinson
& Co., London, p. 1224, 1924. Return to text.
- The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 26:704, 15th Edition, 1992.
Return to text.
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Related articles
References and notes
- Wayne Frair, Original Kinds and Turtle Phylogeny, Creation Research
Society Quarterly, 28(1):22, June 1991. Return to text.
- The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 26:704, 15th Edition, 1992. Return to text.
- Ref. 2, p. 688. Return to text.
- Ref. 2, p. 703. Return to text.
- Ref. 2, p. 692. Return to text.
- Ref. 2, p. 705. Return to text.
- Duane Gish,
Evolution: The Fossils Still Say NO!, pp. 112–115, Institute for Creation
Research, California, 1995. An article in Nature magazine by Ren Hirayama, 392(6678):705,
16 April 1998 also mentions the lack of fossil evidence for turtle evolution, The
fossil record of chelonioids before the Late Cretaceous has been poorly documented.
Return to text.
- E.H. Colbert and M. Morales, Evolution of the Vertebrates, New
York: John Wiley and Sons, p. 216, 1999, cited in Gish, Ref. 7. Return
to text.
- Randall Martin, The Phantom Bridge Exposed: The Latest Turtle Attack,
Creation Research Society Quarterly, 33(1):17, 1996. Return to text.
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