Do you have a favourite species of turtle? (Why?)
Whats been the most unexpected difference between high school and uni?
Here's the breakdown:
In first place:
The leatherback sea turtle Dermochelys coriacea What an innovative turtle, truly stunning. Turtles have been around for hundreds of millions of years and in the midst of all the species associated with that, the leatherback is well and truly unique. Turtles and tortoises have scutes (the "shapes" on their shells), all living species have them - expect the leatherback sea turtle, which instead has several bony ridges. The leatherback isn't a sterotypical green or brown, nooo, instead, it's black. The leatherback can dive deeper, swim faster, hold it's breath longer, grow larger... than the other turtles, which makes it really interesting. Also, they withstand cold conditions better than many other turtles, which is nice given that Victoria is a colder state compared to many in the country.
My favourite non-seaturtle turtle is the
Eastern longneck turtle Chelodina longicollis which is the first turtle I ever saw in real life, and lives around Victoria (as well as other places). Apparently there are some in the JMR which I go in for enviro bio labs, but I haven't seen one there yet.
I also quite like the green sea turtle
chelonia mydas which used to be my favourite turtle (I've only memorised the scientific names for the ones I really like, I don't know all of them)
Most unexpected difference between uni and highschool? the demographics. I kind of knew this, but I wasn't really prepared for it. Sometimes it seems like 95% of uni students have been overseas, parents went to uni etc. and the family backgrounds and etnicities of students is also different to at my school. Both have/had diversity, but the diversity is more strongly represented in different areas.