Turtles: Metamorphosis In The Late Triassic Tradition

The novel “The Back of the Turtle” by Thomas King is relevant to Canada in both present day and history. Through the setting, characters and theme the story is portrayed in a way that makes it sound like a calamitous prediction for the future of Canada’s treasured natural world. Riddled with corporate greed and environmental disaster, the story follows those involved and affected by the catastrophe that destroyed Samaritan Bay. His lifelike characters are tangled with labyrinthine emotions that add another layer of complexity to the story. In my opinion, the novel “The Back of the Turtle” by Thomas King is a great novel because of the depth of storytelling that the author can achieve, and deserves to be recognised as a “Great Canadian Novel”.

American literature has evolved greatly from the Native Americans to 1870’s. American literature has changed, it teaches us how we have become more independent ourselves. The World on a Turtle’s Back, a myth, The Scarlet Letter, a book in a puritan setting, and A Rose for Emily is a southern gothic story. American literature would not be the same today without these forms of writing. The teachings from these are passed down generation to generation.

There are four main groups of reptiles, known as Crocodilians, Squamates, Tuataras, and Turtles. Crocodilians consists of large reptiles which includes alligators, crocodiles, gharials, and caimans. Squamates are lizards, snakes, and worm-lizards. A worm-lizard is a subterranean burrowing reptile that resembles an earthworm, a legless lizard. Tuataras are a group of reptiles that are lizard-like in appearance but are different from squamates because their skull isn’t jointed. Turtles are the most ancient reptiles alive today. They have changed very little since they first showed up 220 million years ago. The first turtle appeared 220 million years ago.(Laura Klappenbach)

Shifting from the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago into the next era, the Triassic period occurred between 250 and 199 million years ago and was know for further diversifying life on land. After the Permian period, the Triassic period was largely successful in adapting and evolving, as the world was going through many changes. The land mass known as Pangea began its separation, which would be completed in the Jurassic period. The climate was relatively more severe during this time, with hotter summers and colder winters, but because of the warmer atmosphere, there were no polar ice caps at this time. Towards the center of Pangea, it was mostly a dry desert climate. As for life on earth, most of the marine life had been wiped

The leatherback sea turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, belong in the phylum of Chordate, class of reptilian, order of Testudines, and the family of Dermochelyidae. These reptiles can be found throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Leatherback sea turtles are the largest turtles in the world. The average life expectancy of a leatherback turtle is forty-five years. Average size of the turtles upper shell, carapace, is about five feet and has a rubber-like texture feel to it consisting mainly of oil-saturated connective tissue. On average Dermochelys coriacea can weigh any where from approximately six hundred to two thousand pounds. In length these turtles are typically fifty-five to seventy-nine inches. The lack of claws is another distinguishing

Most people believe that the earth was created fleshly made with at least one person and that person would soon gave brith to a nation that would become our future generation today. The Native American Iquriouis legend “The World on the Turtle’s Back” is a creation story passes down from generation to generation

In particular, one of these seven species is comprised of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). The largest of all hard-shelled turtles, loggerheads have massive heads, strong jaws, and a reddish-brown shell, or carapace. Their front flippers are short and thick with 2 claws, while the rear flippers can have 2 or 3 claws. Loggerhead hatchlings have a dark-brown carapace with pale brown flippers. According to National Geographic (2015), adult males reach about three feet (nearly one meter) in shell length and weigh about 250 pounds (113 kilograms), but large specimens of more than 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) have been found. They are primarily carnivores, munching jellyfish, conchs, crabs, and even fish, but will eat seaweed occasionally. They prefer to feed in coastal bays and estuaries, as well as the shallow water along the continental shelves of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

vertebrae” (Martel, 235). He describes turtles as “...a bowl of hot soup - became my favourite

The Tyrannosaurus, also known as the T-Rex, are some of the biggest carnivores that roamed this planet. A large one would weigh about 6,000 Kilograms. A large T-Rex was 12.3 meters long. It could crush bone with a single bite. It ate the big 3 witch are the Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians, and Ankylosaurus. In the stereoscopic arc(witch is where both eyes meet) the T-Rex could see 3-D. It’s name means tyrant lizard. The T-Rex was tall but not the tallest carnivorous dinosaur.

Turtles have been on this earth for more than 200 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes and even lizards. The earliest turtles had teeth and could not retract their heads, but other than this, modern turtles are very similar to their ancestors. Several species of turtle can live to be over a hundred years old, including the American Box Turtle.

The Triassic-Jurassic extinction occurred about 210 million years ago, killing about 80 percent of all living species (“End-Triassic Extinction”). Most species were hit hard, but there were no major full-on extinctions. Still, cephalopods, sponges, corals, reptiles, and pollen and spore producing plants were hit hard. The dinosaurs, however, were lucky and survived the extinction intact. This allowed them to reign supreme for the next geological epoch (“End-Triassic Extinction”). During the time of the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, Pangea was in the process of breaking apart. This caused major volcanic activity to occur, one of the prevailing theories as to what caused this extinction (“End-Triassic Extinction”). Like during the Permian-Triassic

The differences between Ceratopsian dinosaurs can be identified by examining size, shape of crest and number and placement of horns. Deinonychus had a curved claw on one toe, several inches long, that was used for jumping onto and wounding large prey when hunting in packs. Dunkleosteus was a massive cannibalistic armored fish that swam the oceans millions of years before anything even vaguely resembling human life walked the earth. These are all things that I would gladly have informed you of when I was roughly five years old. I was infatuated with all things prehistoric, and not in the typical manner of the kid wearing a t-rex t-shirt and pretending that the floor was lava. I was at natural history museums every chance I got, and I was dead

The Mesozoic Era contains three geologic time periods including the Triassic Period ,from 252 million to 200 million years ago. The Triassic period was named in 1834 by the German geologist Friedrich August Von Alberti (1795-1878). It was originally named the "Trias". It got its name because this period of geologic time is represented by a three-part division of rock types in Germany . It began 252 million years ago, at the close of the Permian Period, and ended 201 million years ago. Jurassic Period, from about 200 million to 145 million years ago. During the Jurassic Period, the supercontinent Pangaea split apart. The Jurassic was a golden age for the large herbivorous dinosaurs known as the sauropods—Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus,

     A long long time ago, in a galaxy not too far away, was a little blue

Tiny turtle hatchlings from eggs and then the turtles leave the Mainland and towards the sea. About 15 years the turtle grew up and live in the coral rocks on the ocean floor. The turtles to travel 500 miles long, he'll return to land to lay eggs. In his travels while at the seabed, the turtles met with many fish are there in the ocean. The turtles see coral and he initially thought the only stunning coral rocks, but the coral is actually formed of thousands of animals are piled up on the ocean floor, their bones are growing out of their body and it makes it more visible as the rocks, they are stacked to make a superb structure and major cities of coral