Are Turtles Mammals? (With Pictures and Videos)

There are a lot of classifications for animals, mammals, reptiles, insects, amphibians. So to which group do turtles belong?

Are turtles mammals? No, turtles are not mammals, turtles are reptiles. While there are some similarities between reptiles and mammals, turtles are classified as reptiles, not mammals.

So turtles are not mammals, instead, they are reptiles. But what is the difference between the two classifications? And why do turtles belong to one classification and not the other? To find out the answer to these questions let’s take a closer look at each of them and find out the differences and similarities.

What Are Mammals

Most animals in the world are mammals, they can be found everywhere, on the ground, as well as underground, in the oceans, and even in the sky. As a result, a lot of them tend to look very different from one another, but they still have a lot of things in common, that make them mammals. So let’s take a look at the things that make a mammal be a mammal.

The Way That Mammals Are Born and Raised

What defines this type of animal is the way they are born. All mammals are born from the womb of their mothers. When mammals are born they are usually very vulnerable, and the parents or at least one of them will take care of the newborn until it’s able to survive on its own.

A lot of young mammals are not able to eat proper solid food, so their mothers will feed them with milk that they produce with their mammary glands. This is also from where the name mammals come from.

The Way That Mammals Breath

All mammals breathe with their lungs. While this seems like an obvious thing, it’s easy to think that some mammals that live underwater, like dolphins and whales have gills, but they don’t. While they are able to stay for long periods of time underwater, they still need to get out for oxygen.

Here is a video of a whale getting out of the water to get oxygen and blow water:

The Body of a Mammal

The body of most mammals is usually covered in some type of fur. But there are some mammals that don’t have fur on them. But all of them have skin that covers their entire body, with the exception of the eyes, and some orifices, like the mouth, or the one that whales use to blow water.

Another characteristic of the mammal body is that it maintains its own temperature. While every living creature is affected by the environmental temperature up to some point, not every animal is able to control its body temperature.

All mammals have limbs, like legs and arms. All terrestrial mammals have 4 limbs, the only mammals that can have 3 limbs are the aquatic ones, some of them have 2 fins and 1 tail.

Another thing that characterizes mammals is that they have external ears. Some of them can be easily spotted, like the ones of dogs, cats, foxes, etc… While others can be a little harder to spot like in the case of dolphins who have small holes near their heads.

There are a lot more things that can characterize a mammal, like the structure of its heart, the structure of the bones, the types of teeth, etc. But for this article, I chose to stick just with the ones that are simple and easy to observe. Now let’s see what characteristics define a reptile

What Are Reptiles

Reptiles are probably the most diverse category of animals, in this category you can find small and dangerous animals like the snake, large and docile animals like the turtles, and colorful and mysterious animals like the chameleon. The reptiles are indeed a very diverse group, but they do have some characteristics in common, even if hard to observe at first. So let’s take a closer look at those characteristics.

The Way That Reptiles Are Born and Raised

While mammals are born from the womb, reptiles are born from eggs. And when they get out of the eggs they are usually alone and have to survive by themselves.

Unlike mammals who care for their young, reptiles don’t do this(with the exception of one or two), the moment that the baby reptile is born it has to survive on its own. There is nobody to give them food and protect them until they grow up.

But unlike mammals who need some time to develop, reptiles are mostly fully developed when they are born. With the exception of the size, there are very few things that separate an adult from a baby.

The Way That Reptiles Breath

Just like mammals reptiles have two that they use to breathe. This is also the case for sea turtles who live in the ocean. Just like dolphins and whales, turtles also need to get out for air.

The Body of a Reptile

The body of a reptile is covered with scales. A scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal’s skin that provides protection. There are multiple types of scales that differ in color, purpose, and composition. Some reptiles are even able to change the color of their scales in order to hide from predators or prey. Even turtles are able to change their color to some extent, if you want to know how much turtles can change their color and how they do it you can read my article where I talk in more detail about the subject: Do Turtles Change Colors? ( with Pictures )

Another characteristic of mammals is that they are cold-blooded, this means that they are not able to control their own body temperature and they have to rely on the environment to heat up their body. This is also the reason why you can see so many reptiles just laying in the sun. At first glance, you might just think that they are lazy, but in reality, they have to do that in order to keep their body temperature.

Reptiles, unlike mammals, don’t always have limbs. I am talking here about the snake, which is one of the most recognized reptiles in the world.

A very interesting thing that is exclusive to reptiles is their ability to regrow parts of their body. Geckos, skinks, and other lizards are able to detach their tails if they feel that they are in danger, and they are able to regrow it back later.

Here is a video of a lizard that just dropped its tail:

Another difference is the reptiles, unlike mammals who have external ears, have internal ears. This means that there is usually no openings for the sound to go into, instead, they rely mostly on the vibrations of the sound to hear.

Now that I’ve listed the main characteristics of reptiles let’s see why a turtle is a reptile and not a mammal.

Why Turtles Are Reptiles and Not Mammals

First, let’s start from the way a turtle is born. All turtles, with no exception, are born from an egg. This fact excludes them from the category of mammals and puts them in the category of reptiles.

And just like all reptiles turtles don’t take care of their babies, turtles are basically alone from their first day. I know that this seems really sad but turtles don’t really mind it, they actually prefer it that way. If you want to know why they like to be alone, and more things in general about the social life of a turtle you can always read my article: Are Turtles Social or Solitary Animals? ( with Pictures and Video )

Another reason why turtles are reptiles and not mammals are because they are covered with scales. The scales can be seen a lot clearer on tortoises, who are basically turtles who prefer to live on land. But the easiest to miss scales on a turtle are the ones on its shell. A turtle shell is covered with scales that are called scutes. If you are interested in this, you can find pictures and more information about scutes in this article: Do Turtles Shed?

The fact that they are cold-blooded and need to sit in the sun in order to maintain their body temperature, is another fact that classifies them as reptiles and not mammals.

The lack of any external eats, also puts them in the reptiles category.

While there are a lot of major differences between turtles and mammals, there are a few similarities, like the fact that they all have 4 legs, or the fact that they all breathe using their lungs ( while turtles mainly use their lungs to breathe, they also have a small secret that allows them to breathe through their butt, if you want to know how they do it, you can check out this article: Do Turtles Have Gills? ( with Pictures and Videos ) ). But those small similarities are nothing exclusive to turtles, they are something that most reptiles and mammals share. So they are noting that can classify turtles as mammals.