The turtle is known to be a slow creature but a survivor. The slow but sure physiology of the animal is reflected in the slow but constant evolution of the turtle’s brain over the last 210 million years.

Scientists compared the brain of the Proganochelys, the oldest turtle with a real shell, and modern turtles by using computed tomography scanning on two fossil skulls.

Very simple brain structure

Dr. Stephan Lautenschlager, the lead author from the University of Birmingham’s School of Geography, Earth and Environment, said that the results of the scan showed the animal had a very simple brain structure. The turtle’s vision and hearing were likely not very good, while its sense of smell was developed moderately.

Over the course of its evolution, …show more content…
The ability to adapt is important as scientists observed similar diversifications in the other animal groups like birds and mammals, Dr. Ingar Werneburg, from the Senckenberg and University Tübingen in Germany, said.

Mysteries of the turtle’s origin

The study also helped clarify some mysteries of the origin of the turtle. According to various competing hypotheses, the animal originated in an aquatic, terrestrial, or fossorial environment. After the digital brain reconstruction of the Proganochelys and the modern turtle, it became evident that the first turtles with a fully formed shell were likely living on land, not on water or digging underground. Gabriel Ferreira, from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, said that it was only later that the animal explored different habitats.

As one of the oldest vertebrate groups still alive today, the animal’s origins go back almost 250 million years. But the turtle has changed very little since then. Almost all of the turtle fossils looked similar to modern turtles which likely enabled the animal to survive several mass …show more content…
As a result of the above-average temperatures in the region, up to 99 percent of the green sea turtles born in certain nesting beaches in Australia are now female, Green News reported.

According to researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who sampled the nesting beaches in Australia, 99.1 percent of the juveniles, 99.8 percent of sub-adults, and 86.6 percent of the overall population of the green sea turtles are now female.

But because the sand is comparatively cooler on the southern beaches of Australia, the percentage of green sea turtles that have turned female is between 65 and 69 percent of the overall green sea turtles populations.

Complete feminization

The scientists warned that the complete feminization of the green sea turtles might take place in the near future. By chewing on grass, supporting marine life, and regulating sponge distribution, the green sea turtles play a crucial role in keeping Australia’s ecosystem