Description
These tortoises may attain a length of 10 to 14 inches (25 to 36 cm), with males being slightly larger than females. Male tortoises have a longer gular horn than females, their plastron (lower shell) is concave compared to female tortoises. Males have larger tails than females do. Their shells are high-domed, and greenish-tan to dark brown in color. Desert tortoises can grow from 4–6"(10–15 cm) in height and weigh 8–15 lb (4–7 kg) when fully grown. The front limbs have sharp, claw-like scales and are flattened for digging. Back legs are skinnier and very long.
Read more about this topic: Desert Tortoise
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“God damnit, why must all those journalists be such sticklers for detail? Why, they’d hold you to an accurate description of the first time you ever made love, expecting you to remember the color of the room and the shape of the windows.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)