Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Tortuga is the Spanish word for a turtle or tortoise. It may also refer to: Geography. Tortugas, Argentina, a town in Santa Fe Province, Argentina;
The tortoise was the symbol of the ancient Greek city of Aegina, on the island by the same name: the seal and coins of the city shows images of tortoises. The word Chelonian comes from the Greek Chelone, a tortoise god. [13] The tortoise was a fertility symbol in Greek and Roman times, and an attribute of Aphrodite/Venus. [33]
Spanish explorers, who discovered the islands in the 16th century, named them after the Spanish galápago, meaning "tortoise". [5] Galápagos tortoises are native to seven of the Galápagos Islands. Shell size and shape vary between subspecies and populations. On islands with humid highlands, the tortoises are larger, with domed shells and ...
The Spanish word galápago derives from a pre-Roman Iberian word meaning "turtle", the meaning it still has in most dialects. Within Ecuadorian Spanish, however, it is now also used to describe the islands' large tortoises. [4] The islands' name is pronounced [ˈislas ɣaˈlapaɣos] in most dialects of Spanish but [ˈihlah ɣaˈlapaɣoh] by locals.
In North America, it may denote the order as a whole. In Britain, the name is used for sea turtles as opposed to freshwater terrapins and land-dwelling tortoises. In Australia, which lacks true tortoises (family Testudinidae), non-marine turtles were traditionally called tortoises, but more recently turtle has been used for the entire group. [4]
“Like the determined old fellow he is, Barnaby adapted well to the scooter,” zoo officials said.
This is a list of all reptiles living in Spain, both in the Iberian Peninsula and other territories such as Ceuta, Melilla, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands (including marine reptiles that can be found on its shores).
In Britain, terrapin is used to refer to a larger group of semiaquatic turtles than the restricted meaning in America. [6] [9] Australian usage is different from both American and British usage. [8] Land tortoises are not native to Australia, and traditionally freshwater turtles have been called "tortoises" in Australia. [10]