Q 01/05

Tortoises make up which family of the order Testudines?

A) Emydidae

B) Cheloniidae

C) Testudinidae

D) Trionychidae

Answer · why

C) Testudinidae

Testudines is simply Latin for 'tortoise'; the family name applies only to the land-dwelling species with domed shells.

Q 02/05

Tortoises are the longest-living what?

A) Reptiles

B) Land animals

C) Vertebrates

D) Egg-layers

Answer · why

B) Land animals

Most species manage 80 to 150 years, and a few individuals have been credibly documented well beyond that.

Q 03/05

The smallest tortoise, the speckled Cape tortoise, has a shell only about how long?

A) 6.8 cm

B) 16.8 cm

C) 26.8 cm

D) 36.8 cm

Answer · why

A) 6.8 cm

At the other extreme, the Galápagos giant tortoise grows past 1.2 metres.

Q 04/05

Captain Cook gave the tortoise Tu'i Malila, one of the oldest ever recorded, to which country's royal family?

A) Fiji

B) Hawaii

C) Samoa

D) Tonga

Answer · why

D) Tonga

Presented shortly after hatching in 1777, it stayed with the royal household until it died in 1965, aged 188.

Q 05/05

Adwaita, an Aldabra giant tortoise claimed to be over 250 at death in 2006, lived at a zoo in which Indian city?

A) Mumbai

B) Delhi

C) Chennai

D) Kolkata

Answer · why

D) Kolkata

It was said to have been the pet of Robert Clive and was handed to the Alipore zoo when it opened in 1875.