Excessive sea turtle nest predation is a problem for conservation management of sea turtle populations. This study assessed predation on nests of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) at Wreck Rock beach adjacent to Deepwater National Park in Southeast Queensland, Australia after a control program for feral foxes was instigated. The presence of predators on the nesting dune was...

Turtle karyotypes are highly conserved compared to other vertebrates; yet, variation in diploid number (2n = 26-68) reflects profound genomic reorganization, which correlates with evolutionary turnovers in sex determination. We evaluate the published literature and newly collected comparative cytogenetic data (G- and C-banding, 18S-NOR, and telomere-FISH mapping) from 13 species spanning 2n = 2...

The turtle shell is an evolutionary novelty in which the developmental pattern of the ribs is radically modified. In contrast to those of other amniotes, turtle ribs grow laterally into the dorsal dermis to form a carapace. The lateral margin of carapacial primordium is called the carapacial ridge (CR), and is thought to play an essential role in carapace patterning. To reveal the developmental...

Turtle (Emys orbicularis L.) embryo thymuses grafted in the somatopleure or onto the quail embryo chorioallantoic membrane developed in these heterotopic sites for 2-12 days. When the thymus was removed from embryos at early stages such that no thymocytes were yet present during normal development, epithelial cells with mitoses were observed in the explants but no turtle thymocytes developed wh...

Freshwater turtles as a group are more resistant to anoxia than other vertebrates, but some species, such as painted turtles, for reasons not fully understood, can remain anoxic at winter temperatures far longer than others. Because buffering of lactic acid by the shell of the painted turtle is crucial to its long-term anoxic survival, we have tested the hypothesis that previously described dif...

Euphrates turtle is the only soft shell turtle of Iran, and unfortunately is in danger of extinction due to multiple reasons. Imaging techniques, in addition to their importance in diagnosis of injuries to animals, have been used as non-invasive methods to provide normal anatomic views. A few studies have been conducted to understand body structure of the Euphrates turtle. Since there is only g...

Ants known for attacking and killing hatchling birds and reptiles include the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren), tropical fire ant [Solenopsis geminata (Fabr.)], and little fire ant [Wasmannia auropunctata (Roger)]. We tested whether sea turtle nest placement influenced exposure to predaceous ants. In 2000 and 2001, we surveyed ants along a Florida beach where green turtles (Chel...

This study was designed to observe young children working with a turtle robot on five Logo tasks. Eighteen children (mean age 7 years 3 months) attempted the tasks individually and then in one of three gender pairs: boy-boy, girl-girl or boy-girl. The results of the study revealed that initially the boy-boy pairs completed the tasks using the least amount of moves, in less time and with fewer e...

The objective of this report is to provide a short introduction regarding simple tire models that could be used when modeling the military vehicle HMMWV. Drawbacks and advantages associated with the tire models are briefly discussed. The report also introduces a simple three-dimensional tire model that has been implemented to Chrono software [3].

Hybridization among sea turtle species has been widely reported in the Atlantic Ocean, but their detection in the Pacific Ocean is limited to just two individual hybrid turtles, in the northern hemisphere. Herein, we report, for the first time in the southeast Pacific, the presence of a sea turtle hybrid between the green turtle Chelonia mydas and the hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata. Th...