​The difference between soft-shelled turtle, tortoise and turtle

The difference between soft-shelled turtle and tortoise is that tortoise is a kind of turtle with a sharp head, and tortoise is a general term for turtle and soft-shelled turtle. At the beginning, turtles were often used to refer to fish, such as “a thousand-year-old turtle and a ten-thousand-year-old tortoise”. Later, people found a "王" in the middle and two "八" characters on the turtle's plastron, so 王八 also referred to the turtle.

The difference between a turtle and a soft-shell turtle seems confusing to us laymen. Aren't turtle and soft-shelled turtle two names for the same creature? But we may have another question: what is the connection or difference between the legendary soft-shelled turtle and tortoise? Now it's time to learn more. Let's see whether turtle and soft-shelled turtle are the same.

There is indeed a difference between turtles and soft-shelled turtles (also known as tortoises) in biology. "Wangba" is a common name, not a formal biological term. Its original meaning is "a man who allows his wife to have an affair with someone else", and it was written as "wangba" at that time. Later, people used "duck" to refer to or metaphorically refer to "turtle", because the duck's head in the past Chinese breeds was green. Later it also referred to "turtle", see (A Dream of Red Mansions, Xue Pan: "Marrying a man is a turtle" and "My husband is a bastard"), and now it is basically used as an alias for "turtle" in the whole country.

The turtle has a special shell on its body, and its head, tail and limbs can be extended and retracted from the shell. Its whole body is box-shaped and can be divided into three parts: head and neck, trunk, limbs and tail. The back of the head is slightly triangular, black or brown-black, with the mouth located at the front of the head. The front of the head is smooth, and the back is finely scaly. There are no teeth on the upper and lower jaws, and the jaw margins are covered with a tough fish sheath called a beak.

The nostrils are located at the front of the snout. The sense of smell and touch are well developed. The turtle's body is box-shaped, and its entire body is enclosed in a box-shaped shell. The turtle shell is clearly divided into two parts: the dorsal carapace and the plastron, which are connected to each other on both sides by a bridge. The dorsal and ventral carapaces are composed of two layers, the outer layer is the horny shield derived from the epidermis, and the inner layer is the bone plate derived from the dermis. The shield grooves between the shield plates and the sutures of the bone plates do not overlap, so the turtle shell is extremely strong.

Can turtles and tortoises be kept together?

It’s best not to keep them together.

First, in terms of food intake, turtles are obviously larger than tortoises, so it is difficult to control the amount and timing of food input, which may cause the water quality to deteriorate and the turtle to get crustacean disease, which will be very troublesome. In terms of temperament, turtles are more active while turtles are quiet, and the turtle will definitely make the turtle "restless". The turtle spends a longer time in the water, while the turtle needs to go on land to "dry its shell"; fourth, raising a turtle and a tortoise together is uncoordinated and unsightly.