The distance a sea turtle might travel in one hour would take a week for a tortoise to cover. Turtles are ancient life forms. The earliest fossils recognized as turtles date from the Triassic period, about 200 million years ago. Turtles were in existence prior to the emergence of the great dinosaur groups and survived the demise of the dinosaurs, continuing to adapt and flourish. Turtles occupy almost every imaginable habitat-woods, ponds, rivers, lakes, marshlands, prairies, deserts and the open ocean, and they eat food as varied as insects, tender seagrasses, carrion, fruit and fish.
Turtles have great similarity yet great variation as well.
The Galapagos tortoise evolved on islands with no predators and little competition. Desert tortoises are much smaller. They eat cactus fruit and desert grasses and because of their environment, God has given them adaptations to be able to survive without water. They get the moisture they need from the food they eat. The pancake tortoise of Africa has a flat, soft shell, instead of the hard dome common to most turtles.