page_title: Geometric tortoise
section_title: Identification
hierarchical_section_title: Geometric tortoise / Identification
caption_attribution_description: Tortoises, terrapins, and turtles London, Paris, and Frankfort&#160;:H. Sotheran, J. Baer &amp; co.,1872. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2948267
context_page_description: The geometric tortoise is a critically endangered species of tortoise and one of three members of the genus Psammobates. It is found in a very small section in the South-Western Cape of South Africa.
context_section_description: It has a very strong, black and yellow patterned carapace, used for defence against predators. The patterns are arranged in ray-like markings and help the tortoise blend in with its environment. From a birds eye view the shell has geometrical symbols on it thus giving it its name. This tortoise is very small, and a full grown tortoise can only reach about 5 to 6 inches in diameter.  The tortoise is one of the rarest species of tortoise of earth, only about  2,000 to 3,000 are alive today. However, because of its cryptic coloration and lack of activity, it makes it hard to create an accurate estimate of the population size.
  While it shares much of its superficial outer appearance with its relatives in the genus Psammobates, it can be distinguished by the distinctively brightly coloured yellow stars of its shell scutes, the small nuchal and single axillary, the lack of buttock tubercles, and the only slightly upturned rear margins of the shell.
caption: Illustration
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