i went camping in joshua tree national park this weekend and on our hike this afternoon we came across this beautiful desert tortoise shell. all that was left was the partially cracked shell that was almost completely sun-bleached. it was sad thinking this poor tort had to die but it was neat to see evidence of them living out there in the wild! also, notice the awesome barrel cactus!

very cool find!!!!!

Wow Josh, Nice pic and a great find thanks for sharing.

That's cool. My husband has a collection of box turtle shells that he has found over the years. Most times though the plastron is not there.

i wanted to take it with me but i had to respect National Park rules...
plus, it's better off out there where someone else can stumble upon it and appreciate the harsh habitat those torts live in.

I think I have a couple of baby desert tort shells that were given to me about 25 yrs ago. I haven't seen them in a few years, I must have put them away in a good spot. Now I'm gonna have to tear my house apart to find them and take pics.

keith, that'd be awesome!
you probably can't tell the scale in my photos but that shell is about a foot long

Josh, I did figure it about that size. With the size of the rocks and grass/weeds, it doesn't look small.

OK, I found them! Here you go.

those are awesome shells, keith! again, sad that those poor torties had to die but those are cool artifacts