REPTILES

Photo of a turtle

Turtle
Excerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Turtles have a rigid beak. Turtles use their jaws to cut and chew food. Instead of teeth, the upper and lower jaws of the turtle are covered by horny ridges. Carnivorous turtles usually have knife-sharp ridges for slicing through their prey. Herbivorous turtles have serrated-edged ridges that help them cut through tough plants. Turtles use their tongues to swallow food, but they can't, unlike most reptiles, stick out their tongues to catch food.

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Ref: 2007_5596

Location: National Zoo, Washington, D.C.