The turtle’s family tree has always been a bit of a mystery. “Turtles have a lot of unique morphological characters,” explains Nick Crawford, a post-graduate biology researcher at Boston University. “Basically, having a shell makes the rest of you look really different from your closest relatives.” Scientists looking at the turtle’s muscles and bones tend to think that they belong next to snakes and lizards. But scientists doing molecular analysis have placed their bets with turtles and birds. A recent paper in the journal Biology Letters hopes to put the issue to rest. By ... Read More