If you look at turtles and think, that has to be an ancient design… you’re right!

We have cretaceous, tertiary and modern specimens in the Eromanga collection. One of Australia’s oldest and most complete chelid turtles, nicknamed ‘Gibba’ is approximately 30 centimeters in diameter and about 100million years old! Australia’s modern freshwater turtles are members of the chelid family. Gibba has attracted international attention and Rochelle - our newly appointed Gibba technician will work to remove the rock from the shell to assist Dr Ben Kear of Uppsala University, Sweden to determine Gibba’s relationship to both past and present chelids, and also establish its identity as a new species. We asked Dr Kear to reveal the turtles’ seven secrets to survival success.

1.  The body design of turtles is versatile and adapted to life both on land as well as in the sea.
2. The most obvious key to their success is the shell, which provides both protection and structural support for locomotion in different environments.
3. Dietary diversity - turtles can eat almost anything!
4. Turtles have an economical physiology -‘cold-bloodedness’ is very energy efficient.
5. They have a high temperature tolerance - turtles can live anywhere from hot deserts to snow-covered temperate regions.
6. They have lots of babies! Although mortality is high some will always survive.