Sunken scutes.

[Anyfoot]

Hi, I was lead to believe that sunken scutes are a sign of dehydration,is this true.
Does this also apply to homana hingebacks. I thought theses guys looked like this for camouflage. Do wild homeana have a smooth carapace? Photo below of my most sunken hingeback.
Thoughts please
Thank you.

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't know about hingeback tortoises, but that is the case with the Manouria tortoises. It seems their shells are very pliable and puff up or recede daily. Give them lots of humidity and wet substrate and the shells look smooth. Allow it to dry out and the scutes pull in.

 

[Anyfoot]

I don't know about hingeback tortoises, but that is the case with the Manouria tortoises. It seems their shells are very pliable and puff up or recede daily. Give them lots of humidity and wet substrate and the shells look smooth. Allow it to dry out and the scutes pull in.

mmm thanks Yvonne, That's very interesting, I only asked because someone commented that my hinges looks like they had suffered dehydration at some stage of there lifes. However I think she was comparing them to her bells hingebacks.

 

[FLINTUS]

Possibly, it seems to be the case with emys, however it might be a natural feature of impressa and erosa/homeana.
Just because we think of a smooth shell as being a sign of good health, one cannot judge that and that alone as a measure of what we should be doing. One has to look at the wild counterparts-which are often pyramided in some species e.g. pardalis, carbonaria, or have indented scutes- , and then decide whether we can improve on the wild based on the explanation of humans affecting the habitat or general habitat effects to which they have not adapted, or whether we should copy what they get in the wild-most on here choose the former...

 

[Anyfoot]

Possibly, it seems to be the case with emys, however it might be a natural feature of impressa and erosa/homeana.
Just because we think of a smooth shell as being a sign of good health, one cannot judge that and that alone as a measure of what we should be doing. One has to look at the wild counterparts-which are often pyramided in some species e.g. pardalis, carbonaria, or have indented scutes- , and then decide whether we can improve on the wild based on the explanation of humans affecting the habitat or general habitat effects to which they have not adapted, or whether we should copy what they get in the wild-most on here choose the former...

Its not an issue for me, just thought these shouldn't be smooth, and basically they should look like the forest floor,leaves etc to camouflage.
You've just hit on a question I've often wondered. Are there wild torts that show pyramiding or reverse pyramiding.

 

[Anyfoot]

Just need to add, if there are pyramided wild torts, is it because of interference of the the human race making it harder for them.
BTW these are all happy torts Ben.

 

[FLINTUS]

My erosa are very smooth, but they still have more 'disjointed' scutes than most tortoises-rather than having smooth joins between the scutes-, and a couple have slight indentations.
That's really a rather long question to even speculate, but yes there are pyramided tortoises in the wild-I've seen wild elegans that have been pyramided, as well as previously wild aldabras in Mauritius personally. Tons of pictures of pardalis, sulcatas, belliana-in particular kbb and zombensis-, and graeca are available on the internet. Whether this should be the case or not is a big question on here, and the general consensus seems to be no-hence, the constant high humidity concept on here, despite them being able to dry out in the wild, to get the shells smooth.
In the case of elegans and possibly impressa, it could well be down IMHO to the Indian subcontinental plate that traveled so fast(3x the world average) to form what is now the Himalayas. It has caused a number of species in India to be only found in specific microclimates more similar to Madagascar, and it has been speculated that a number of species and their ancestors have struggled to fully adapt to the higher land, and drier climate, but no proper studies have been conducted on this.
Arguably, in S.America, where Red Foots can be found in areas where cacti grow, this is down to human deforestation, and consequently, the desertification effect. Most of these animals again, have not grown very smoothly-if one looks at the imported Red Foots, the smoothest, largest ones come from deep rainforest in Suriname and Guyana.
The same thing might be what happened to Sulcatas in sub-Saharran Africa. I'll be in Kenya this summer helping out with a building project for a school, so hopefully will be able to get some data on the kinixys species, pardalis and sulcata burrows there, showing perhaps the microclimates in which they might spend most of their time.

 

[Jacqui]

I look forward to what you find in Kenya.

 

[Anyfoot]

I look forward to what you find in Kenya.

I second that.