Anyne who has ever heard the expression “it’s turtles all the way down” is probably familiar with the image of the world being carried on the back of a giant turtle. While that philosophical one-liner is of relatively modern vintage, the cosmic turtle mytheme has appeared in disparate cultures across the globe for millennia.

A three-legged specimen of the world's rarest type of tortoise has been fitted with rollers to get it moving again after it was rescued from smugglers. Hope, a ploughshare tortoise, has been given a new home at Chester Zoo after being found in a suitcase by Hong Kong customs officers in 2019.

Even with good data, it’s hard to predict tropical cyclones, which often appear with little warning and wander drunkenly around the world’s oceans. But five years ago, Olivier Bousquet was tasked with forecasting storms’ strengths and paths in the cyclone-infested southwest Indian Ocean. The solution: Turtles!

A tortoise from a Galápagos species long believed extinct has been found alive and now confirmed to be a living member of the species. The tortoise, named Fernanda after her Fernandina Island home, is the first of her species identified in more than a century.