Turtle Power!

The latest book in our Curioddities series is coming out soon. Here’s a preview of the book, Simply Shocking.

Amateur photographer Chris Van Wyk had quite a surprise when he spotted this punk turtle swimming in the Mary River in Queensland, Australia. The unusual creature is an endangered Mary River Turtle and its crazy green “hair” is in fact algae growing on the turtle’s head.

Mary River Turtles are actually quite threatened in the wild because there are only a few places where they live. Despite being one of the biggest freshwater turtles in Australia, it was only recognized as a new species in 1994.

As for the algae on this turtle, that sort of thing is much more common on the shell, which is relatively flat, faces up towards the sun and isn’t subject to nearly as much movement. Turtles aren’t the only animals with things that grow on them. Whales can have large colonies of barnacles attach to them. Sloths grow algae too, but not just algae. They are also host to species of moths that live only on their bodies!

This page comes right out of Simply Shocking, available March 13!

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