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Origin of the unique ventilatory apparatus of turtles: How the tortoise's

ribs got embedded in its shell
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Source: University of the Witwatersrand

Summary: Through the careful study of modern and early fossil tortoise,
researchers now have a better understanding of how tortoises breathe
and the evolutionary processes that helped shape their unique breathing
apparatus and tortoise shell.

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Date: November 7, 2014

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Treatment

Related Topics
Plants & Animals
Frogs and Reptiles

More Coverage

Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Climate

Turtles Use Muscle Power to

Breathe Due to Rigid Shell

Fossils & Ruins

Evolution

Nov. 7, 2014 Turtle shells are

unique in the animal kingdom. In
order to be able to breathe in this inflexible casing,
tortoises have a muscle sling which is attached to
the shell to ventilate the lung. ... read more

Fossils

Related Stories
Giant Aldabra Tortoises Debut
at Bronx Zoo
A Computed Tomography rendering of a snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
showing the skeleton (white), lungs (blue), and abdominal muscles (red and pink)
used to ventilate the lungs. Because turtles have locked their ribs up into the
iconic turtle shell, they can no longer use their ribs to breathe as in most other
animals and instead have developed a unique abdominal muscle based system.
Credit: Emma R. Schachner

[Click to enlarge image]

hrough the careful study of modern and early fossil tortoise,

researchers now have a better understanding of how tortoises breathe
and the evolutionary processes that helped shape their unique
breathing apparatus and tortoise shell. The findings published in a paper,
titled: Origin of the unique ventilatory apparatus of turtles, in the scientific
journal, Nature Communications, on Friday, 7 November 2014, help
determine when and how the unique breathing apparatus of tortoises evolved.
Lead author Dr Tyler Lyson of Wits University's
Evolutionary Studies Institute, the Smithsonian
Institution and the Denver Museum of Nature and
Science said: "Tortoises have a bizarre body plan and
one of the more puzzling aspects to this body plan is
the fact that tortoises have locked their ribs up into the
iconic tortoise shell. No other animal does this and the
likely reason is that ribs play such an important role in
breathing in most animals including mammals, birds,

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crocodilians, and lizards."

Arthropod

Instead tortoises have developed a unique abdominal

muscular sling that wraps around their lungs and
organs to help them breathe. When and how this mechanism evolved has been
unknown.
"It seemed pretty clear that the tortoise shell and breathing mechanism evolved in
tandem, but which happened first? It's a bit of the chicken or the egg causality
dilemma," Lyson said. By studying the anatomy and thin sections (also known as
histology), Lyson and his colleagues have shown that the modern tortoise breathing
apparatus was already in place in the earliest fossil tortoise, an animal known as
Eunotosaurus africanus.
This animal lived in South Africa 260 million years ago and shares many unique
features with modern day tortoises, but lacked a shell. A recognisable tortoise shell
does not appear for another 50 million years.
Lyson said Eunotosaurus bridges the morphological gap between the early reptile
body plan and the highly modified body plan of living tortoises, making it the
Archaeopteryx of turtles.
"Named in 1892, Eunotosaurus is one of the earliest tortoise ancestors and is known
from early rocks near Beaufort West," said Professor Bruce Rubidge, Director of the
Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University and co-author of the paper.

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Thought

Earliest Archaeological Evidence of Pet

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July 12, 2010 An archaeologist has discovered a
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"There are some 50 specimen of Eunotosaurus. The rocks of the Karoo are remarkable
in the diversity of fossils of early tortoises they have produced. The fact that we find
Eunotosaurus at the base of the Karoo succession strongly suggest that there are
more ancestral forms of tortoises still to be discovered in the Karoo," Rubidge added.
The study suggests that early in the evolution of the tortoise body plan a gradual
increase in body wall rigidity produced a division of function between the ribs and
abdominal respiratory muscles. As the ribs broadened and stiffened the torso, they
became less effective for breathing which caused the abdominal muscles to become
specialised for breathing, which in turn freed up the ribs to eventually -- approximately
50 million years later -- to become fully integrated into the characteristic tortoise shell.
Lyson and his colleagues now plan to investigate reasons why the ribs of early
tortoises starting to broaden in the first place. "Broadened ribs are the first step in the
general increase in body wall rigidity of early basal tortoises, which ultimately leads to
both the evolution of the tortoise shell and this unique way of breathing. We plan to
study this key aspect to get a better understanding why the ribs started to broaden."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of the Witwatersrand.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:
1. Tyler R. Lyson, Emma R. Schachner, Jennifer Botha-Brink, Torsten M. Scheyer,
Markus Lambertz, G. S. Bever, Bruce S. Rubidge, Kevin de Queiroz. Origin of the
unique ventilatory apparatus of turtles. Nature Communications, 2014; 5: 5211
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6211
Cite This Page:
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University of the Witwatersrand. "Origin of the unique ventilatory apparatus of

turtles: How the tortoise's ribs got embedded in its shell." ScienceDaily.
ScienceDaily, 7 November 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141107111042.htm>.

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