Dark Roasted Blend has a great article on turtles right now, complete with tons of great pictures and some interesting facts about the creatures. For example:
The rigid shell means turtles cannot breathe as other reptiles do, by changing the volume of their chest cavity via expansion and contraction of the ribs. Instead, turtles breathe in two ways. First, they employ buccal pumping, pulling air into their mouth, then pushing it into the lungs via oscillations of the floor of the throat. Secondly, by contracting the abdominal muscles that cover the posterior opening of the shell, the internal volume of the shell increases, drawing air into the lungs, allowing these muscles to function in much the same way as the mammalian diaphragm.
I don't know about you guys, but this article makes me want to run off and adopt some new hard-shelled pets.
Link
I got my frist one 42yrs.ago,shes still going strong.
Get a gold fish.
Strangely enough, I think it's the lack of teeth that make me feel like they're a bit on the shifty side.
Jessss, that was my reaction to a different article a while ago - I'd never seen a tortoise called a turtle before (because here in the UK they never are - tortoise=land, turtle=water), but Wikipedia told me that all tortoises are turtles so I've just got to accept it :)