The shell of a turtle is not an exoskeleton, as some people mistakenly assert. The shell is a modified ribcage and part of the vertebral column. It cannot be "taken off" (as cartoons would lead us to believe) anymore than you could "take off" your spine a

The shell of a turtle is not an exoskeleton, as some people mistakenly assert. The shell is a modified ribcage and part of the vertebral column. It cannot be "taken off" (as cartoons would lead us to believe) anymore than you could "take off" your spine a