Experimental Production of Shell Abnormalities in Turtles

Abstract

Turtle eggs exposed to sub-optimal moisture conditions for a few days during the period from the 35th to the 50th day of development produced a high percentage of abnormal embryos. The abnormalities were of various degrees ranging from slight anomalies in the scutellation to markedly distroted, eyeless monstrosities. It is suggested that many of the abnormal adult turtles described in the literature, which show conditions exactly paralleling some of the specimens produced in these expts., have arisen through partial drying of the egg during a critical stage in embryonic development.