<\/p>
The upper shell of a turtle or tortoise is actually the ribcage. The individual ribs fuse together where they emerge from the spine and extend around the shoulders and pelvis of the animal to form a continuous carapace.<\/p>\n
The underside of the shell is a separate piece made from the shoulder girdle and sternum (breastbone). So turtles don\u2019t actually \u2018live inside\u2019 their shells, any more than you live inside your own rib cage.<\/p>\n
But the shell isn\u2019t made entirely of bone. It\u2019s covered with around 54 plates of horn-like keratin that provide waterproofing and scuff-protection.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked by: Vikram Rathaur, London<\/strong><\/p>\n To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don\u2019t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Luis Villazon Published: Monday, 08 November 2021 at 12:00 am The upper shell of a turtle or tortoise is actually the ribcage. The individual ribs fuse together where they emerge from the spine and extend around the shoulders and pelvis of the animal to form a continuous carapace. The underside of the shell is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":246,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs.jpg",1200,537,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs-300x134.jpg",300,134,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs-768x344.jpg",768,344,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs-1024x458.jpg",800,358,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs.jpg",1200,537,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2021\/11\/a-turtles-shell-has-a-lot-in-common-with-your-ribs.jpg",1200,537,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Luis Villazon Published: Monday, 08 November 2021 at 12:00 am The upper shell of a turtle or tortoise is actually the ribcage. The individual ribs fuse together where they emerge from the spine and extend around the shoulders and pelvis of the animal to form a continuous carapace. The underside of the shell is…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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