Tortoise Shell

Turtle shell

The turtle shell is a shield for turtles, completely enclosing all the turtle's vital organs and in some cases even the head. It comprises an upper part, the carapace, and lower part, the plastron, connected by a bony bridge. It is constructed of modified bony elements such as the ribs, parts of the pelvis, and other bones found in most reptiles. The bone of the shell consists of both skeletal and dermal bone, showing that the complete enclosure of the shell likely evolved by including dermal armor into the rib cage.

Tortoiseshell cat

Tortoiseshell is a coat coloration in domestic cats named for its similarity to tortoiseshell pattern. The coats of tortoiseshell cats, or torties for short, are two colors other than white in an asymmetrical distribution, either closely mixed ('brindled') or in larger patches. The two colors always consist of one eumelanistic and one phaeomelanistic color. The most common tortoiseshell coloration is black tortoiseshell. Tortoiseshell can occur in combination with other cat coat patterns, such as tabby and colorpoints. Tortoiseshell cats with the tabby pattern in their eumelanistic color are tortoiseshell tabby cats, sometimes referred to as torbies.

Tortoise

Tortoises are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines. Like other testudines, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other members of the suborder Cryptodira, they retract their necks and heads directly backward into the shell to protect them.

tortoise shell

Noun

1. The shell of a tortoise, sometimes inaccurately the shell of a turtle, or that material.
2. Alternative form of tortoiseshell.