Cartoons often suggest turtles wear shells like removable armor. Those stories show turtles stepping out, swapping shells, or ...

When we picture sea turtles in the wild, it's easy to envision them as armored warriors—their hard, resilient shells serving as near-impenetrable shields against oceanic threats like sharks. These ...

The sea creature arrived at San Diego's Birch Aquarium in 2014 Ingrid Vasquez is a Digital News Writer at PEOPLE. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor in Journalism.

A sea turtle’s shell is living bone fused directly to its spine and ribs. It is not a detachable shield or an external case, as certain quirky cartoons have shown. The shell grows with the turtle, ...

The shells of chelonians—think turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles—grow in layers, keeping a time-stamped record of environmental conditions. Uranium has shown up in the layers of turtles’ and ...