Terrestrial turtles evolved to avoid being turned over

For a shallow turtle, being turned over is the most miserable and miserable scenario. So to avoid that, some species have evolved a pretty clever trick - creating a perfectly balanced shell.

Gabor Domokos and Peter Varkonyi at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary have modeled the morphology of sea turtles and tortoises with different apricot heights. They found that those with very high shells, such as star turtles, often have only one effective balance, which is prone. If placed in a different way, such as placing a backstroke, the star turtle will automatically roll back to its original position without much effort.

The shallow turtle star has a very high apricot, so it is easy to lie back if it is turned upside down.(Photo: Thestar.com)

In geometric terms, this type of tortoise is called a monostatic object, meaning that the object has only a steady state on the horizontal plane. Such forms are rare in nature, the researchers say.

Other species with flatter apricots, such as the Argentine snake neck turtles, have two balance points - on the abdomen and back - and most use their necks as a lever to bring the body back to its stomach.

The animals with average high tomorrow have worse shape than all, the researchers said. They can rest in three completely separate spots, either prone or recumbent, meaning they can be caught halfway through if rolled.

T. An