. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE LUTH, on LEATHERY TURTLE. 21 and brown. The ribs are not fully united together until the animal has attained a rather advanced age. We now arriA'e at the Turtles, a group that can be distinguished by many unmistakable marks. Their feet are very long, those of the fore-limbs being longest, flat, expanded at the end, and often furnished with flattened claws. In fact, tlie feet are modified into fins or paddles, in order to suit the habits of these reptiles, which only feel themselves a
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE LUTH, on LEATHERY TURTLE. 21 and brown. The ribs are not fully united together until the animal has attained a rather advanced age. We now arriA'e at the Turtles, a group that can be distinguished by many unmistakable marks. Their feet are very long, those of the fore-limbs being longest, flat, expanded at the end, and often furnished with flattened claws. In fact, tlie feet are modified into fins or paddles, in order to suit the habits of these reptiles, which only feel themselves at home in the water, and are often met at sea some hundreds of miles from the nearest land. Tlie ribs of the Turtles, instead of being united throughout their length, as in the tortoises, are only wide, flat, and united for part of their length, the remaining portions being free, and radiating like the spokes of a DOGANIA.—Dogaiiia subplanus. These reptiles inhabit the seas of the torrid and the temperate zones, and their food is mostly of a vegetable nature, consisting of various seaweeds, but there are a few species which are animal feeders, and eat creatures such as moUusks, star-fish, and other marine inhabitants. Several species are remarkably excellent for food, and caught in great numbers for the table, while others are equally useful in supplying the beautiful translucent substance known by the name of tortoise-shell. Their head is rather globular, and their Jaws are naked and horny, and are capable of inflicting a severe wound. The first example of the true Turtles is the Lutii, or Leathery Turtle {Dermatochelys coriacea), so called from the soft leather-like substance with which its shell is covered. This species is found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, where it grows to a very large size, often weighing more than sixteen liundred pounds, and measuring eight feet in length. Being a very good swimmer, owing to the great development of the limbs,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
