It’s easy to mistake turtles for amphibians. After all, one of the first things we learn about amphibians is that they love water. In fact, they spend over 75 percent of their life in water! In that sense, turtles seem like true amphibians. However, there are many more factors to consider.
For starters, amphibians are animals that undergo a metamorphosis . They usually go through two main stages: a water-breathing, aquatic larval stage to a land-dwelling, air-breathing adult stage. This transformation involves many changes in the animal’s body structure; for example, the development of the lungs and the limbs. They also have moist skin. This allows them to absorb nutrients when underwater.
Turtles, on the other hand, are born with a fully formed body that is adapted to their environment, and they do not undergo the metamorphosis that is characteristic of amphibians. Turtles differ from amphibians in many other ways as well.
1. All turtles in the world are covered in scutes, small plates made of bone. More precisely, the shells of all the turtles in the world are covered with scutes. Scales and scutes are a feature specific to reptiles, not amphibians.
2. Think of amphibians, like frogs or salamanders. Notice how their skin is always moist and covered with a layer of mucous ? They have mucous glands in their skin and use them to produce the mucous coating that always layers on top of their skin. Compare that to the skin of a turtle. They don’t produce any mucous, so their skin is dry when they are on land.
3. Amphibians can also use their skin to breathe! The mucous coating on their skin helps animals like salamanders and axolotls breathe underwater. By contrast, turtles can only use their lungs to breathe.
4. Although turtles spend most of their life in water, they do not lay their eggs in the water! When it comes to eggs, turtles are typical reptiles. They only lay eggs on land and typically build nests on beaches. Sea turtles usually have to travel long, long distances to reach the beaches on which they lay their eggs. For example, the Olive Ridley turtles (the turtles seen in the Finding Nemo movie) travel for thousands of kilometers to reach the coasts of India, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Here, they lay clutches of eggs—usually 100 eggs strong—and then travel back thousands of kilometers back to where they live. After two months, the baby turtles emerge from their eggs and travel back to the open waters of the South Atlantic, Pacific, or Indian oceans.
5. Another key characteristic that helps distinguish turtles as reptiles is the size of their clutch of eggs. Turtles can lay anywhere between 20 and 110 eggs at once. On the other hand, amphibians always lay a much larger clutch of eggs. Sometimes, amphibians like frogs or toads may even lay clutches as large as 5000 eggs!
Therefore, while turtles and amphibians may share some parallels in their association with water, they are distinctly different classes of animals with unique attributes and adaptations.
Glossary
Metamorphosis: A process all amphibians go through in which they develop from an immature larval stage into a mature adult stage.
Clutch: The total number of eggs laid in one nesting season or nesting event.
Mucous: A thick, viscous, and slippery liquid-like substance that is produced by many animals, like frogs and even humans!
Glands: Organs in the body that are capable of producing or secreting substances like hormones or enzymes.
Readability: 62.3
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level: 7.9
References
Olive Ridley Turtle. September 30, 2020.
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/olive-ridley-turtle
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia. Reptile and Amphibian Traits. (n.d.).
http://archive-srel.uga.edu/outreach/factsheet/traits.html
Zug, G. R., & Dowling, H. G. Reptile | Definition, Characteristics, Examples, & Facts. Encyclopaedia Britannica. July 26, 1999. https://www.britannica.com/animal/reptile
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