How old would a teenage turtle really be?
 

Human beings typically reach sexual maturity in their teens. Red eared sliders, cited in Mirage as the species the TMNT started out as reach sexual maturity around age five, which is presumably their equivalence of teenage years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eared_slider
So assuming that a 15 year old turtle has been sexually mature for ten, they're like what? 36 by human standards?

That's actually pretty believable since in most incarnations, the turtles actually look and behave more like adults than actual human teenagers.

Although it is inevitable that Andrew will come in and point that its dumb for the turtles to act like human teenagers (and he's not completely wrong, they were raised in isolation to kill one man after all).

So it could be that they're still 15 (even by human standards), they just won't act like the average American teenager due to their upbringing in Mirage.

Interesting assessment. I always just think of them as having gained a lifespan like ours, though with 36 being their real life age... still works for me. :tsmile:

Actually from a biological perspective we cannot equate turtles to humans on any meaningful level with regard to sexual maturity in relation to age because time can't really be compared like that between species in the name of accurate science. They would be better compared to frogs, snakes or fish in that regard. Primates (US) are quite a different matter.

However, THIS IS FICTION... The turtles, once mutated, ARE NOT TURTLES. They are anthropomorphized humanoids, so yeah.... if they are 15 year old turtles, with 10 years of sexual maturity, they would probably be in their late 20s or early 30s.

With regard to the TMNT not acting like teenagers.... doesn't that depend on the incarnation? The 87 turtles didn't act like adults... neither did 2K3. The Mirage turtles did act like adults in their early appearances but their environment and circumstances didn't allow for much humor until later. The movie turtles acted like young adults but their sense of humor and disposition was more akin to older teens.

Although...red-eared sliders seem to on average supposedly only live between 20 and 30 years. (According to all the turtle info I'm seeing online.) So whether considering them teens at any point in time or their real life age taken into consideration, gaining a human-like lifespan, and natural slider stats not all applying as they once did, would probably be a good thing for them. :tcool:

I guess teen Turtles would be more like middle aged Turtles already in that case...or older.

edit: If their 30 was our 80, then I guess our 40 would be their 15.

But they are 36 in the real world, and 36 in my mind.

Their bodies may still be (bipedal) turtles. But yeah, once mutated, their brains work like Human brains.

Well, we have to consider that they were babies when mutated (as stated in most versions), so POTENTIAL turtle age/lifespan aside, they were already operating on a more human scale from the start. Whatever their turtle age of maturity would have been, they bypassed it for a more human one, soooo....

The Ninja Turtles are "old enough to know better but too young to give a sh*t."

There it is. :trazz:

^ So much this, lol!

:lol: Yeah, that's pretty much all that needs to be known. (Although if you switch "young" for old, I find that's also pretty true for a lot of seniors. lol)

It's good you got ahead of the curve. :)

Though, yes. And they would never. Ever.

If this is true, they must've been at least 5 physically when they mutated in 1987, since in this one they mutated into teenage size.