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Turtles live all over the world.
A tortoise is a turtle, but a turtle isn´t a tortoise. turtles are some of the oldest animals around. The largest turtles weigh more than a thousand pounds. Turtles have a second shell.

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Slow and steady won the race in 2006 when scientist Anna Wilkinson placed a tortoise and rat in the same maze. The reptile was better at navigating the maze to find food, making sure it didn't revisit the same area twice. When cognitive landmarks were removed for a second trial, the tortoise systematically visited each section of the maze to find food. The rat wasn't as methodical. Previous research hasn't shown tortoises to be so clever, though: Wilkinson suspects cold lab temperatures are to blame. Later research found that tortoises use gaze-following to learn from the behavior of other animals.

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But you won't see a creep very often. (Not that kind, anyway.) Tortoises are solitary roamers. Some mother tortoises are protective of their nests, but they don't care for their young after they hatch.

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They can't swim, but tortoises can hold their breath for a long time.

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They can't swim, but tortoises can hold their breath for a long time.

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They're extremely tolerant of carbon dioxide. It's a good thing—tortoises have to empty their lungs before they can go into their shells. You'll often hear them exhale when they're startled and decide to hide.

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Tortoises reach sexual maturity with size, not age.

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Tortoises reach sexual maturity with size, not age.

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It's a boy, err, uhh... You won't be able to tell a tortoise's sex until it reaches a certain size, which varies by breed. The most obvious tell is the plastron—for mating purposes, it's flatter on females and curved on males. Males also tend to be larger and have longer tails.

If you're a tortoise owner who prefers surprises, just wait for your pet to come out of his or her shell. Males will eventually display their private parts while soaking. And it's not uncommon for females to lay eggs, even without a mate to fertilize them.

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Tortoises are experts at surviving in harsh conditions. This is because they have a special skill: extracting water and nutrients from even the tiniest bite of food. They do this by means of a very clever ‘hindgut system’ that works like a double digestive tract. This ability is especially crucial when water is scarce.

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The lighter the shell, the warmer the origin.

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The lighter the shell, the warmer the origin.

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Tortoises from hot places tend to have lighter-colored shells than tortoises from cooler areas. The light tan sulcata originates from the southern part of the Sahara Desert.

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Tortoises have an exoskeleton AND an endoskeleton.

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Tortoises have an exoskeleton AND an endoskeleton.

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The shell has three main parts: the top carapace, the bottom plastron, and the bridge that fuses these pieces together. You can't see them, but every tortoise has ribs, a collar bone, and a spine inside its shell.

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Reptiles, tortoises detect the faintest of smells with the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's Organ, on the roof of their mouths. Instead of flicking their tongues, they pump their throats to circulate air through the nose and around the mouth.

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The most striking difference between a tortoise and turtle is the fact that turtles are able to swim underwater. Tortoises, however, can’t swim. But they can hold their breath for quite some time. Sometimes you’ll hear a tortoise exhaling before he disappears into his shell. This is because their lungs need to be empty for this. Some species have been recorded to hold their breath for over half an hour.