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KEY WEST, Fla. – A sea turtle named after President Barack Obama that was rescued just before Inauguration Day has been set free on Independence Day. Obama the loggerhead sea turtle was found ailing off a Key West beach on Jan. 19, the eve of the inauguration. Suffering from an intestinal impaction, the 200-pound female was nursed back to health with a diet of squid and mineral oil at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. Turtle Hospital administrator Ryan Butts said the turtle was set free Saturday on a Key West beach as about 100 people watched. He says it was...

Paleontologists say a 75-million-year-old turtle fossil uncovered in southern Utah has a clutch of eggs inside, making it the first prehistoric pregnant turtle found in the United States. At least three eggs are visible from the outside of the fossil, and ...studying images taken from a CT scan in search of others inside. the turtle was probably about a week from laying her eggs ...

Over the past 2 weeks a number of organizations including National Geographic, Conservation International, and several famous rock bands helped facilitate the “Great Turtle Race”: a fun effort to scientifically track the migration of 11 endangered leatherback sea turtles on their journey from Canada to the Caribbean. In addition to building awareness of the need for turtle conservation, one of the turtles provided the world with the 1st complete set of migration data ever recorded for a sea turtle. She traveled all the way from Canada to French Guiana, and has been a research participant for 15 years, which helped...

Pope Benedict flew from Cameroon to Angola on Friday with an unusual traveling companion -- a turtle. Just before he left Cameroon, the pope met a group of Baka Pygmies, hunter-gatherers from the country's rain forests. They came to the grounds of the Vatican embassy in the capital Yaounde and gave him the turtle of about 30 cm (one foot) long. The Vatican said it was not yet clear if the turtle -- which has not yet been named -- would be left in Angola or find a new home in the Vatican gardens.

Evidence for turtle evolution by Jerry Bergman and Wayne Frair The fossil record is rich with many well-preserved turtle shells and a wide variety of turtles ‘dating back’ to before the dinosaurs in the Triassic. Phylogenetic analysis of turtles has resulted in much controversy and conflicting results that vary depending on the techniques used. Molecular evidence also contradicts previous evolutionary classifications based on gross morphological comparisons. The extant evidence shows that turtles appear in the fossil record fully formed...

The last place scientists expected to find the fossil of a freshwater, tropical turtle was in the Arctic. But they did. The discovery, detailed today in the journal Geology, suggests animals migrated from Asia to North America not around Alaska, as once thought, but directly across a freshwater sea floating atop the warm, salty Arctic Ocean. It also provides additional evidence that a rapid influx of carbon dioxide some 90 million years ago was the likely cause of a super-greenhouse effect that created extraordinary heat in the polar region. "We've known there's been an interchange of animals between Asia and...

Xiao-chun Wu has spent years studying fossils, and he finally has enough evidence to write his own Just So Story: How the Turtle Got His Shell. Publishing today in a science journal, his Chinese, Canadian and American team has some stunning evidence: two well-preserved fossils of ancestral turtles that swam in the shallow ocean of present-day China more than 220 million years ago. These are the oldest turtles ever found, even older than most dinosaurs. Turtles have lived a long time without changing much. They've had a broad top shell and smaller bottom one for something like 216 million years,...

The remarkable journey of a green turtle from Indonesia into Australian waters is helping conservationists to track the migratory route of this species to the Kimberley-Pilbara coast - one of the few relatively pristine coastal areas left on Earth. Ana, a female green turtle, was tagged in Indonesia in November as part of a turtle tracking project by WWF and Udayana University in Bali, Indonesia, and has slowly made her way from a nesting beach in East Java, across the Indian Ocean, and is on track for the beaches of the Kimberley in Western Australia. Her journey, monitored online by...

A rare East Asian turtle, one of just four believed left in the world, was swept away by a flood, taken hostage by an enterprising fisherman and nearly ended up in a soup pot.Instead, the 150-pound animal returned to its lake Wednesday and conservationists celebrated their deal with the fisherman — the turtle's freedom in exchange for about $200 and two new fishing nets.

A half-shell turtle species that swam in China's coastal waters 220 million years ago is the oldest turtle known to date, a new analysis of fossils reveals. The turtle had a belly shell, but its back was basically bare of armor. Last week, a team of scientists had reported the discovery of the oldest aquatic turtle, dating back 164 million years. That was a short-lived title. The new half-shell aquatic turtle, studied by Chun Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and his colleagues and dubbed Odontochelys semistestacea, swam around even longer ago.

Turtles first took to the water 164 million years ago when they started swimming in lakes and lagoons on the Isle of Skye, fossil finds have indicated. Excavations on the island have yielded the remains of at least six primitive turtles that learnt to swim during the age of the dinosaurs. For more than 50 million years primitive turtles had been land animals but 164 million years ago they evolved to become aquatic. The discovery of Eileanchelys waldmani, a previously unknown species of primitive turtle, represents a missing link in the evolution of turtles that palaeontologists have long sought. Its...

A screwdriver and some Velcro has changed the life of a once-homeless turtle living on the Peninsula. When handyman Kohl Williams fitted a three-legged tortoise with a set of toy wheels, suddenly Tonka was off a rolling -- slowly. Peninsula Humane Society workers think Tonka was bitten by a dog. When her picture showed up in the morning newspaper, she was adopted almost immediately, Humane Society officials said. General donations can be made to the humane society by phone, mail or online. To make a credit card donation over the phone, contact Lisa Van Buskirk at 650-340-7022, ext. 327 or...

Later in the day, the three women who said they'd come across the purplish flotsam a few weeks ago showed off a second snapshot of it on a digital camera. "It exists," Rachel Goldberg, Courtney Fruin and Jenna Hewitt asserted on local cable channel Plum TV, denying suspicions that they'd Photoshopped a picture of a dead dog.

An unknown creature that washed up on the beach in Montauk, New York, has been dubbed the "Montauk Monster" and captivated the American imagination. Speculation about the identity of the Montauk Monster is rampant. Many skeptical Americans believe that the Montauk Monster a publicity stunt. The most conspiracy-minded are sure the Montauk monster is detritus from a sinister government operation. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-operated Plum Island animal testing facility is nearby, fueling the belief that the USDA is responsible; some would see the Montauk Monster as a hideous USDA experiment gone wrong while others might consider it...

REMAINS of a mysterious "creature" washed up on a Long Island beach have set websites in United States abuzz with speculation about its origins. Hot on the heels of new claims from an ex-NASA astronaut about aliens visiting Earth, news of the find has excited conspiracy theorists around the world. Dubbed the Montauk Monster after the Long Island town where it was found, the creature has prompted speculation it was part of a secret mutant breeding program undertaken by the US Government. The Huffington Post has even given the creature its own blog.

A popular oceanic visitor of Laniakea Beach, Hawaii paid his respects to his murdered Hawaiian Sea Turtle friend.Link

Calvin "Clicker" Embry talks a little funny these days. You would, too if a 15-pound snapping turtle ever latched onto your tongue and wouldn't let go." I started doing this trick years ago, and it's a great crowd pleaser," the legendary turtle hunter said. "I guess I've kissed about a hundred snappin' turtles and never been bit — until this last time."....The chunk of tongue that's missing makes "Clicker" talk a little funny, but it's not serious enough to stop him from kissing snapping turtles on the snout or licking their eyeballs.

My buddy from the county arboretum emailed to say that the little Saucer Magnolia was starting to bloom, tiny little tree, more flowers than tree. Stuff is popping out of the ground everywhere you look, even saw the first Ladybug of the season. When I got home I plopped down on the porch steps, looked up and a big Florida Cooter was crossing the driveway. It was still covered with sand, it's been buried and sleeping all winter. It's Spring, folks! http://www.pbase.com/tsiya/root http://photobucket.com/albums/v244/tsiya/ http://cabbagehammock.blogspot.com/

A pet store has bought a two-headed turtle from a collector and plans to keep it on display, the store manager said. The 2-month-old turtle, actually conjoined red-eared slider twins, fits on a silver dollar. It has two heads sticking out from opposite ends of its shell, along with a pair of front feet on each side. But there is just one set of back feet and one tail. The turtle is apparently healthy, and the species can live 15 to 20 years, said Jay Jacoby, manager of Big Al's Aquarium Supercenter in East Norriton. The turtle has not...

MASSILLON, Ohio -- A northeast Ohio man was arrested after he allegedly fired a gun at a turtle and accidentally shot himself in the foot. Massillon police say the 24-year-old man is recovering. He's facing a count of discharging a weapon within city limits. Police Sergeant Johnnie DiLoreto says the man caught the turtle during the weekend and attempted to shoot it. He missed the turtle, but shot himself in the foot. The man caught the turtle while fishing the Tuscarawas River in Massillon. Police think the turtle got away.