ANSWERS: 4
  • Turtles don't have spines. Their shells serve as their spine.
  • There are two orders of Testudines. In pleurodires, the neck vertebrae flex laterally, allowing the neck to bend and pull the head in sideways. In cryptodires, the neck vertebrae flex vertically, allowing the head to be drawn straight back within the shell.
  • Think "snake", also a reptile. The turtle's neck is connected to it's shell in an "S" curve. When the turtle pulls it's head into it's shell, the neck curves into the body cavity just like a snake poising to strike. And those ridges on the center of the turtle's back? Those are where the spine continues. So in a sense you could say the neck 'buckles', though actually the proper term would be more like "flexes". Just like a snake.
  • The rest of the book says that the answer is irrelevant.

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