Galileo was mistaken, and the ancient cosmologists were right: this turtle has the entire world on its back.
Early last week, when the aforementioned image was being shared on Twitter, Live Science noticed it and got in touch with Task Force Turtle to learn more about it. It turns out that the full story includes drugs, mysteries, phenomenal herpetological memories, butt gas, and possibly the capacity to hold one’s turtle-like breath for months on end.
Task Force Turtle, a project of herpetologists and undergraduate students at Washington College and other local institutions, has been obsessively tracking snappers and painted turtles in the swamps of Maryland for more than a decade. The common snapping turtle in the picture is one of the many snappers and painted turtles that Task Force Turtle has found.
Aaron R. Krochmal, a biology professor at Washington College and one of the researchers who started the project, said that “all of our turtles, thousands of them now, have been fitted with radio transmitters in the summertime when they’re making these movements [toward their winter mud holes]. We “follow” them, quite literally, around the clock.
He claimed that the turtles in the area are fascinating because they give scientists the chance to thoroughly examine a migration. From their summer stomping grounds to their winter hideouts—tightly crowded, underground mud-holes where they can wait out the cold—the turtles travel the same route year after year.
“What we find extremely cool is that these animals do wallow in a specific area of mud. And they return yearly to the exact same location, which I define as being accurate to the centimeter “Informed us Krochmal.
According to him, this presents a rare opportunity for researchers to conduct an exhaustive study of an annual migration, allowing them to interact closely with the turtles in ways that are simply not possible when an Arctic tern or bison herd is in motion.
Even going so far as to mount “turtle-cams” on their backs to record their movements, the researchers do get quite up close and personal with their subjects.
Krochmal claimed that the turtle that had a tiny living ecosystem on its back hadn’t actually just awoken from hibernation. She had actually been submerged in the muddy ground by a dried-up lake for more than two weeks.
Krochmal said, “We weren’t actually convinced that her radio transmitter was still attached.
This turtle was deeply buried and showed no signs of emerging, while the majority of the others had already moved on to their winter homes. Maybe she had already left, leaving her transmitter behind.
The earth began to tremble at that point, and she emerged writhing. The photo was taken by psychology professor Timothy Roth from Franklin and Marshall College.
The 10-inch-thick (25-centimeter) world on the turtle’s back weighed approximately 18 pounds, according to Krochmal, and the turtle itself weighed about 13 pounds (6 kilograms) (8 kg). But she made no obvious indication that she was exerting any extra effort as she set out for her winter mud hole. [Top 10 Most Amazing Animal Expeditions]
He remarked, “She was just trucking right along.
Krochmal, Roth, and their colleagues are drawn to these creatures because of their propensity to always take the same route to the same mud hole. He claimed that it is simply unknown how typical this mud-hole migration is elsewhere in Maryland. And while it’s possible that the reptiles depend on pockets of air underground and are known to drastically slow down their metabolic rates and gulp air bubbles through their mouths and cloacas, it’s unclear exactly how they survive underground for months without coming up for air (turtley anus-genital combination holes).
However, the Turtle Task Force is gradually figuring out what is going on in the creatures’ minds to allow them to repeat such a particular journey every year, he said.
He claimed that as part of that effort, the team has given scopolamine dosages to migratory turtles.
Scopolamine prevents the brain from binding the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, according to him.
This makes it impossible for the brain to create or access memories. (In earlier decades, doctors gave it to women during childbirth, but that’s another story entirely.)
The researchers discovered that the drug makes migratory turtles disorientated.
For about five or six hours until the drug wears off, “they just sort of wander in circles,” Krochmal said. Then they simply “snap out of it,” return to their path immediately, and continue on their intended course.
For the scientists, this is a tale about how turtle brains process information to navigate their brief annual migration back and forth. For the turtles, it is a tale of resolve to keep moving forward despite the strange chemicals that strange strangers inject into their bodies or the enormous loads they are bearing.
Amazing! Thank you.
WTF! what kind of science is it where we drug up the subject of “study” . I see absolutely zero to gain by fiving turtles Any drug much less scopolamine. me thinks the “scientists” may be doing this for legal access to what is commonly known to be a date rape drug. If I am off base, please explain yourselves. I see no valid science in this endeavor.
Totally agree!! No animal is safe😡
Agree 100%
I am equally horrified to read that any drug has been given to these creatures. When will humans learn to butt out? Stop abusing the natural world
When the turtle emerges from hibernation, where does it go?
Was the earth eventually removed from the turtles back ?
I sure hope someone removed all that dirt so the poor turtle can breathe
It can breathe through its mouth!!!!! Doesn’t breathe through its shell
Salamanders also can estivate by secreting a type of cocoon around itself to keep from drying out.
maybe you should go find something better to do then troll people doing work and trying to educate themselves and others
Interesting. I was just reading a month ago about “The Earth On A Turtles Back,” a story from the Onondaga tribe, an original Native American group, is a myth which related a story about the beginning of the world. Water is below the Skyland and it becomes an issue when the Great Tree is uprooted.
I’ve often wondered where some of these myths come from or how they originated. I ponder is this is the the myth originated from.