You Must have Been A Beautiful Baby!
Isn’t it fun to look at baby pictures and try to guess who they are many years later? The same is true with animals. Some go through dramatic transformations and look totally different as they go through metamorphosis. Isn’t it amazing how different a butterfly is from the caterpillar it was formerly? Other animals go through dramatic growth stages. One such animal is the Snapping Turtle.
This last week I received the pictures that are in this post. This little “snapper” was found while my friend, Danae Was cleaning out the garage in Arlington, Texas. You probably remember the blog post about the turtle survey we participated in at Spring Lake. The two large snappers that were seen in that blog are what the turtles look like when they grow up. You can also see pictures of even larger snappers in my earlier blog post. (I’ve included one at the bottom of this post.) So……let me show you the baby one:
Isn’t It A Cutie?
Notice Its Size In Relation to the Quarter.
Bottoms Up! Notice It Already Has Long Claws.
Wow! You’ve Changed A Lot Since I Last Saw You!
Notice how the ridges on the back smooth out as the turtles grow. Turtles have very long life cycles. Some live to be 100 years old. Wow! It’s best to leave the turtles to grow in their natural environments and go and observe them in their home territories. Turtles do best in the wild and you are more likely to observe their natural behaviors there.
As you look at these turtles and consider their amazing design, just think of the amount of information that must be stored in their DNA for this growth process to occur over the turtle’s life span. Amazing design demands an Amazing Creator. I thank God for designing these amazing creatures.
Why don’t you see if you can find out more about these wonderful creatures? There are many articles on turtles on the internet. See if you can learn something new through ongoing research. You won’t be disappointed!
Detective Gluck 