Newton-John stayed in England and recorded a cover of the Bob Dylan song, "If Not For You". It was the song which first caused her to be well known. She released her first solo album, "If Not For You", in 1971. In 1973, her career began to do well. Her first successful song was "Let Me Be There". The song made the top 10 on the US pop chart. It also earned her a Grammy Award for Best Country Female. More successful songs followed: "If You Love Me Let Me Know," "I Honestly Love You", "Have You Never Been Mellow", "Please Mr. Please" and many more.
Her first big acting role was with John Travolta in Grease. It became the most successful movie of 1978.
Olivia has lived in California for decades. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She had breast cancer in 1992, and recovered. She has been married twice. She has a daughter by her first husband.
She is also an activist for environmental and animal rights issues.
In May 2017, it was announced that Newton-John's breast cancer had returned and metastasized to her lower back. In August 2019, it was also reported that the cancer was at Stage IV and spread to her bones.
Kansas (band)
Kansas is an American rock band. They formed in Topeka, Kansas in 1970. They are best known for songs including "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Dust in The Wind".
Styx (band)
Styx was an American rock band. They were one of the most popular groups of the 1970s and early 1980s. They formed in Chicago in 1972. They were the first band to have four platinum albums in a row. They continued playing after reuniting in 1990.
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull is a rock band. They formed in Blackpool, England in 1967. The singer and leader is Ian Anderson. He also plays flute. This band was highly successful and sung songs such as "Aqualung", "Locomotive Breath", "Living in the Past" and "Thick as a Brick".
Turtle
Turtles are the reptile order Testudines. They have a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield.
The order Testudines includes both living and extinct species. The earliest fossil turtle comes from the early Upper Triassic of China, about 220 million years ago. So turtles are one of the oldest surviving reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards, snakes and crocodiles.
Molecular evidence shows they are definitely archosauromorphs, the group of diapsid reptiles which also includes the dinosaurs.
Turtles have been very successful, and have almost world-wide distribution. But, of the many species alive today, some are highly endangered.
Although the word turtle is widely used to describe all members of the order Testudines, it is also common to see certain members described as terrapins, tortoises or sea turtles, as well. How these names are used, if at all, depends on the type of English.
To avoid confusion, the word "chelonian" is popular among some who work with these animals, as a catch-all name. Unfortunately, "Chelonia" is also the name of a particular genus of turtles, so this conflicts with its use for the entire order Testudines.
Although many turtles spend much of their lives underwater, all turtles and tortoises breathe air, and must surface at regular intervals to refill their lungs. Some spend their whole lives on dry land.
Aquatic respiration in Australian freshwater turtles is being studied. Some species have large cloacal cavities that are lined with many finger-like projections. These projections, called papillae, have a rich blood supply, and increase the surface area. The turtles can take up dissolved oxygen from the water using these papillae, in much the same way that fish use gills to respire.
Like other reptiles, turtles lay eggs which are slightly soft and leathery. The eggs of the largest species are spherical, while the eggs of the rest are elongated. Sea turtles lay their eggs on dry, sandy beaches. Turtles can take many years to reach breeding age, and in many cases breed every few years rather than annually.
In some species, there is temperature-dependent sex determination. Temperature determines whether an egg develops into a male or a female: a higher temperature causes a female, a lower temperature causes a male. Large numbers of eggs are deposited in holes dug into mud or sand. They are then covered and left to incubate by themselves. When the turtles hatch, they squirm their way to the surface and head toward the water. No turtle mother cares for its young.
Researchers have recently discovered a turtle’s organs do not gradually break down or become less efficient over time, unlike most other animals. It was found that the liver, lungs, and kidneys of a centenarian turtle are almost identical with that of its young counterpart. This has inspired genetic researchers to begin examining the turtle genome for longevity genes.
Turtles are divided into two groups, according to how they evolved a solution to the problem of withdrawing their necks into their shells. The Cryptodira (hidden neck) can draw their necks in while contracting it under their spine. The Pleurodira (side neck), now found only in fresh water environments in the Southern hemisphere, contract their necks to the side. So, the important adaptation of head withdrawing evolved twice from ancestral turtles which did not have this ability.
Turtles have a hard beak. Turtles use their jaws to cut and chew food. Instead of teeth, the upper and lower jaws of the turtle are covered by horny ridges. Carnivorous turtles usually have knife-sharp ridges for slicing through their prey. Herbivorous turtles have serrated-edged ridges that help them cut through tough plants. Turtles use their tongues to swallow food, but they cannot, unlike most reptiles, stick out their tongues to catch food.
The upper shell of the turtle is called the carapace. The lower shell that encases the belly is called the plastron. The carapace and plastron are joined together on the turtle's sides by bony structures called "bridges".
The inner layer of a turtle's shell is made up of about 60 bones. It includes parts of the backbone and the ribs, meaning the turtle cannot crawl out of its shell. In most turtles, the outer layer of the shell is covered by horny scales called scutes that are part of its outer skin, or epidermis. Scutes are made up of a fibrous protein called keratin that also makes up the scales of other reptiles. These scutes overlap the seams between the shell bones and add strength to the shell. Some turtles do not have horny scutes. For example, the leatherback sea turtle and the soft-shelled turtles have shells covered with leathery skin instead.
The largest chelonian is a marine turtle, the great leatherback sea turtle, which reaches a shell length of 200 cm (80 inches) and can reach a weight of over 900 kg (2,000 lb, or 1 short ton). Freshwater turtles are generally smaller, but with the largest species, the Asian softshell turtle "Pelochelys cantorii", a few individuals have been reported to measure up to 200 cm or 80 in (Das, 1991). This dwarfs even the better-known alligator snapping turtle, the largest chelonian in North America, which attains a shell length of up to 80 cm (31½ in) and a weight of about 60 kg (170 lb).
The lagest fossil turtle, "Archelon", was more than twice the length of the leatherback, at up to 4.5 metres.
The first fossil proto-turtles come from Upper Triassic of the Mesozoic era, about 220 million years ago. Their shell evolved from bony extensions of their backbones and broad ribs that expanded and grew together to form a complete shell. It offered protection at every stage of its evolution, even when the bony component of the shell was not complete. This proved a long-lasting adaptation, and the group as a whole has survived many changes in the seas, and several extinction events.