how can you tell how old a turtle is?

Question

my friend bought a turtle and we can figure out how old it is

Answer 1

Counting the growth ring, supposedly something like the growth rings on a tree:

"Use Of Growth Rings For Aging Turtles
Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society, Vol.38, No.8, August 2003.
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D. S. Wilson et al. [2003, Herpetologica 59(2):178-194] note that the technique of counting growth rings to estimate age of turtles is widespread in the scientific literature. Review articles to date have provided lists of authors who have found the technique useful or not, but have failed to evaluate properly how well the technique actually works. To examine how well the published literature supports a biologically meaningful rela.tionship between age and number of growth rings, the authors surveyed 145 scientific papers that have used counts of rings on scutes to estimate age of individual turtles. Of the 145 papers surveyed, the authors of 44 papers, which comprised 49 case studies, presented data testing the use of growth ring counts for a population of turtles. Of these 49 case studies, 6 reported that the use of the technique was reliable for aging their turtle species past sexual maturity, 15 reported its use to be reliable for aging turtles to young adult (i.e., sexual matu.rity), 8 reported its use to be reliable for aging juvenile turtles, 2 found it to be reliable with no age limit given, and 8 reported its use unreliable as a method for aging their turtles. Although 22 papers addressed the pattern of growth ring deposition, only four case studies had sufficient data to indicate that a consistent number of rings was added each year. This paper illustrates how the widespread use of this technique ultimately has led to its acceptance without tests of its validity or accuracy. The authors conclude that (a) studies attempting to calibrate the relationship between growth rings and age are few, (b) a majority of the papers surveyed referenced other papers that did not themselves include a test justifying growth ring counts as an estimate of turtle age, (c) aging turtles from counts of growth rings might be feasible in some types of studies, for some species at some locations, but only after calibrating the relationship between ring counts and age for each circumstance, and (d) there is currently no justification for generalizing the use of growth rings to estimate turtle age for many species. "

Answer 2

How Old Is My Turtle

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
how can you tell how old a turtle is?
my friend bought a turtle and we can figure out how old it is

Answer 4

You can't tell the exact age unless you know the birthdate , however the site I listed below helps very much in making an educated guess.

Answer 5

can you send me a picture, how to count the rings on my turtle to know how old she is

Answer 6

Depends. The wrinkles on the skin are a good indication... If it is fairly wrinkly, then it is more than a year old. Take care!

Answer 7

ASK THE TURTLE HOW OLD IT IS

Answer 8

Count the plates on his shell

Answer 9

You mean before or after it's dead? Take it to the vet, I don't know.

Answer 10

by how many squares they have on their shell