Rodrigues Giant Tortoise Essay

Chapter 1: Anatomical History of the Rodrigues Giant Tortoise
The Rodrigues giant tortoises were an endemic species of tortoise found on the island of Rodrigues, Republic of Mauritius. There were two types; the Saddle-backed Rodrigues Giant Tortoise and the Domed Rodrigues Giant Tortoise. The former was greater in size compared to the latter and weighed up to 60 kilograms, this kind is a Saddleback, meaning its shell had a notch at the front, which allowed it to elevate its head more to reach food from higher places. The latter had a size of about 42 centimeters and weighed around 12 kilograms, this type had a domed shell that tilted straightly towards the ground, which made foraging limited to low areas.
This paper’s focus will be on the

The dorsal layer is called the carapace, the ventral portion is called the plastron, and lastly the bridge, which connects the two together from the rims. Inside the shell are the tortoise’s internal organs, including the ribs, collarbone and spine. The shell is actually made from several tiny bones that are divided by scrutes, these are scales that are seen on its carapace. These are made of keratin which is found in nails and hooves; they serve as protection from injury and infection for the bony plates of the shell. As a tortoise ages, extra layers of keratin emerge from underneath the preexisting layer forming growth rings. It is possible to determine the growth of a tortoise from counting the rings on its scutes. The scutes on the carapace have five categories the nuchal which is directly above the head, the supracaudal that is directly above the tail, the vertebrals that is a solitary streak of scutes which route centrally from the head to the tail, the costals which paralells to, and at either side of the vertebrals, and the marginals which verge the costals and attach to the bridge. The marginals have a large effect on the general form of the shell. Its shell also possesses nerve endings that allow the tortoise to feel when an object or organism

Its digestive tract allows it to absorb and assimilate moisture and nutrients from dried food that to other organisms would have no nutritional value. This is possible due to the hindgut system or hindgut fermentation, which is similar to having two digestive tracts. This is executed by having the latter reabsorb nutrients from the waste products formed by the former. It is also noted that tortoises which live in dry climates have the ability to split the urinary waste in their kidneys and stowing away valuable water in the bladder while disposing the waste product in the form of insoluble uric acid crystals. Due to this trait of theirs they are able to survive weeks without eating or