Turtle or tortoise?
Turtle
You might be heading on a vacation soon and will stumble upon a slow moving hard shelled creature along the side of the road on your great American venture and will hear your kids say “hey, look at the cute turtle!” No need to be the proper police, but you might want to point out that if this “turtle” was seen on land walking along a path or desert highway, that “turtle” isn’t really a turtle but rather a tortoise.
Tortoise
While people like to use the word “turtle” to describe all hard-shelled slow green animals, turtles typically reside in water while tortoises are completely land based. Don’t forget about the terrapin! Terrapins are like tweeners in that they split their time between swampy water and dry land just to add confusion to this topic.1
The biggest difference between a tortoise and a turtle? Turtles have a MUCH shorter life span, ranging from 20 to 40 years while a tortoise can live upwards of 150 years!
Read on:
WiseGeek.com – What Is the Difference Between a Turtle and a Tortoise?
Diffen.com – Tortoise vs Turtle
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Interesting day to write about the turtles after they showed up on a JFK airport runway today.