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| My fingernail and the foot of a tiny penny-sized tortoise fetus from a failed egg. |
tortoise [ˈtɔːtəs] noun; any herbivorous terrestrial chelonian reptile of the family Testudinidae, of most warm regions, having a heavy dome-shaped shell and clawed limbs
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Dissection of a failed tortoise egg
Yesterday my son and I dissected a Russian tortoise egg that had stopped developing and dried out. Inside we found moldy icky stuff, but also a tiny blue tortoise fetus about 1.5cm long. It was truly amazing to see how fully formed it was, with tiny claws, little scales, closed eyes, a stubby tail, a little beak, and all the scutes on its shell.
Since not everyone enjoys reading about or seeing pictures of this kind of thing, I am not creating a blog post about it here. However, if you would like to see pictures (no gore, just a tiny fully-formed penny-sized blue tortoise fetus), here is a link to my article on the Tortoise Forum: "Egg dissection"
I followed the link- I find it amazing how developed the baby was. I find it incredible how tortoises can be kind of folded in the egg.
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