They're also some of the only animals that can breathe with their butts. You see, inside a turtle shell is a very particular respiratory system. Wojakowski: You will see the lungs towards the top ...

That honor goes to Aristotle, who in fourth century B.C. observed that lines on the animals’ shells represented a year’s worth of growth. But it wasn’t until the last few decades that ...

Most species, however, had coiled shells lined with progressively larger chambers separated by thin walls called septa. The animals constantly grew new shell material as they aged, but the their ...

Trade in turtle shells is banned by an international agreement to protect the species A man has been arrested after a boat heading for the Welsh coast carrying endangered animal shells was seized.

Instead, hermit crabs have a hard exoskeleton on the front part of their bodies but a soft tail on the other half, which they protect using the discarded shells of other animals, like whelks.