All Turtles Message Board

gothamgod · Level 1 Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 13

is there a difference between a box turtle and a tortoise

Rocky_220 · Level 3 Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 461

Tortoise is the name given to turtles that live mostly on land. They have a number of different species in their group, consisting of box turtles, wood turtles and more. So the answer would be yes. A box turtle is a species from the group of land dwelling turtles.

babylucifer · Level 3 Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 305

I agree with rocky_220. While the terms turtle, tortoise, and terrapin are mostly interchangeable, by CONVENTION, we tend to use "turtle" for aquatics, and "tortoise" for land-based. Course, this leads to all kinds of different debates and discussions. My east african side-neck, a pelomedusa, is a MUD turtle, she has an aquatic style shell, but short little digger paws. She's a very poor swimmer. Is she a tortoise? No, because her cousins roam the Nile and chew the blood ticks off hippos, which live in very deep water.