Science of TMNT

[MsMarvelDuckie]

I wanted to start up a discussion of the various aspects of turtle-related science and real-life facts about turtles and how they might relate to the TMNT. For example, we already have a thread on mutant turtle anatomy here:

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=19496

And a thread on TMNT cross-species mating speculation here:

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=50881

And possible effects or workings of the mutagen here:

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=47327

But we don't have much about ACTUAL turtles and their anatomy, genetics, or behavior. So I thought we could discuss all that (particularly the genetics and how it pertains to mutants) in relation to our fave green team.

For starters, I'd like to note that from all the digging I've done in the last few days (research for a fic) I'v found that turtles have a wide-ranging spectrum of genetic diversity, not the least of which includes varied chromosome counts- anywhere from 22 to 60! Since we know that the TMNT are canonically red-eared sliders (Donatello mentions having once been one in Mirage, and both the 90's movie and 2014 one explicitly show sliders, in spite of Sach's blunder of calling them box turtles....) so we'll start with them.

Sliders have a chromosome count of 50 (some have placed it at 52, but that's debatable) which is HIGHER than a human. (Humans have only 46.) This means that during the mutation, the boys would have actually LOST some of their DNA, a fact that makes their change more interesting from a genetic standpoint. What parts did they lose? Which parts that are common to both would have been altered? These are questions that I'd like to discuss, along with thoughts on differences between sliders and other species that might contribute to their being better-suited to the mutation, or how another species might have turned out. Slash, for instance, is supposed to be a box turtle, and he is obviously QUITE different from the boys. Ditto with Tokka, who as a snapper, most likely has a different chromosome count.

There are other things I'd like to get into as well, such as behavior and diet, but we'll start with this. Have fun!


Oh, and a last note- for anyone who feels the urge to bring up/post the so-called "Scientifically Accurate Ninja Turtles" video, PLEASE DON'T. I'm talking about actual science of real turtles based on facts and research here, not cheap, dumb, half-@$$ed jokes based on crap "pseudo-science" and misinformation that doesn't even qualify as accurate, much less real "science".