Turtles

This article on turtles contains more bewildering facts than just about anything else I've read recently. Consider this:

The liver, lungs and kidneys of a centenarian turtle are virtually indistinguishable from those of its teenage counterpart, a Ponce de Leonic quality that has inspired investigators to begin examining the turtle genome for novel longevity genes.

Or this:

Turtles have the power to almost stop the ticking of their personal clock. "Their heart isn't necessarily stimulated by nerves, and it doesn't need to beat constantly," said Dr. George Zug, curator of herpetology at the Smithsonian Institution. "They can turn it on and off essentially at will."

Or this:

Box turtles and other forest-dwelling species can spot a lake or pond a mile in the distance, possibly by detecting polarized light glinting off the surface of the water. Female sea turtles migrate across entire oceans every breeding season, unerringly making their way from far-flung feeding grounds right back to the beach where they were born, and where they are instinctively driven to lay their own eggs.

And what about this?

Geneticists have proposed that the turtle shell may have appeared quite suddenly in the distant past, rather than emerging slowly through modest, mincing modifications of pre-existing structures. They suggest that the dramatic innovation could have arisen from just a few key mutations in master genes like the so-called homeobox genes, which help specify an animal's basic body plan. If the shell did burst on the reptilian stage more or less fully formed, they said, that would explain the lack of "intermediary" fossils or prototurtles in the paleontological record.

And yet, we treat this ancient animal like shit:

Researchers estimate that at least half of all turtle species are in serious trouble, and that some of them, like the Galapagos tortoise, the North American bog turtle, the Pacific leatherback sea turtle and more than a dozen species in China and Southeast Asia, may effectively go extinct in the next decade if extreme measures are not taken. "People love turtles, people find them endearing, but people take turtles for granted," Mr. Cover said. "They have no idea how important turtles are to the ecosystems in which they, and we, live."