They are wearing RoboCop gear with black plastrons and kneepads.
|
|
He's not convinced it will be useful for many researchers, as there are visual characteristics that can distinguish males, such as longer tails and curved plastrons (the bottom part of their shells).
|
|
And Vera Wang's backless plastrons (those would be fencing vests) over white poplin shirts over sweeping black kilts with dropped trouser waists, which gave way to brutalist raccoon vests and coats, which gave way to ghostly nude tulle gowns bearing sequined panels.
|
|
Males have concave plastrons and longer, thicker tails than females.
|
|
In addition, the members of the family had somewhat reduced plastrons, as well.
|
|
There were however a number of distinctions such as cummerbunds and plastrons between the three Bodyguards.
|
|
Significant use of tortoise plastrons does not appear until the Shang culture sites. Ox scapulae and plastrons, both prepared for divination, were found at the Shang culture sites of Táixīcūn (台西村) in Hebei and Qiūwān (丘灣) in Jiangsu. One or more pitted scapulae were found at Lùsìcūn (鹿寺村) in Henan, while unpitted scapulae have been found at Erlitou in Henan, Cíxiàn (磁縣) in Hebei, Níngchéng (寧城) in Liaoning, and Qíjiā (齊家) in Gansu. Plastrons do not become more numerous than scapulae until the Rénmín (人民) Park phase.
|
|
Since divination (-mancy) was by heat or fire (pyro-) and most often on plastrons or scapulae, the terms pyromancy, plastromancy and scapulimancy are often used for this process.
|
|
Plastrons are organs that some arthropods evolved secondarily to breathe air underwater. This is considered an unlikely explanation since eurypterids had evolved in water from the start and they would not have organs evolved from air-breathing organs present. In addition, plastrons are generally exposed on outer parts of the body while the eurypterid gill tract is located behind the blatfüssen. Instead, among arthropod respiratory organs, the eurypterid gill tracts most closely resemble the pseudotracheae found in modern isopods.
|
|
Oracle bone fragment, Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–1046 B.C.), China, Bone Oracle bone script was an early form of Chinese characters written on animals' bones. Written on oracle bones – animal bones or turtle plastrons – it is the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The first appearance of what we recognize unequivocally to refer as "oracle bone inscriptions" comes in the form of inscribed ox scapulae and turtle plastrons from sites near modern Anyang (安阳) on the northern border of Henan province.
|
|
This is the holotype of the species. Head and limb colors are generally light orange to red. Plastrons are mostly pale yellow. They range in the Guiana Shield- Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Guiana, and northern Brazil.
|
|
The earliest tortoise shells found that had been prepared for divinatory use (i.e., with chiseled pits) date to the earliest Shang stratum at Erligang (Zhengzhou, Henan). By the end of the Erligang, the plastrons were numerous, and at Anyang, scapulae and plastrons were used in roughly equal numbers. Due to the use of these shells in addition to bones, early references to the oracle bone script often used the term "shell and bone script", but since tortoise shells are actually a bony material, the more concise term "oracle bones" is applied to them as well.
|
|
In the males, the head and throat often display yellow, red, or orange spots. Frequently, the bottom shell or plastron is a straw yellow color, and has far fewer dark markings than the plastrons of the other subspecies.
|
|
The Burmese star tortoise has radiating star-shaped patterns on its strongly domed carapace. It has bumps on its shell that look like stars. This tortoise can easily be distinguished from the more common Indian star tortoise by comparing the plastrons of the two species.
|
|
Geoemydidae are turtles of various sizes (from about in length) with often a high degree of sexual dimorphism. They usually have webbed toes, and their pelvic girdles articulate with their plastrons flexibly. Their necks are drawn back vertically. Their carapaces have 24 marginal scutes.
|
|
Scapulimancy (also spelled scapulomancy and scapulamancy, also termed omoplatoscopy or speal bone reading) is the practice of divination by use of scapulae or speal bones (shoulder blades). In the context of the oracle bones of ancient China, which chiefly utilized both scapulae and the plastrons of turtle, scapulimancy is sometimes used in a very broad sense to jointly refer to both scapulimancy and plastromancy (similar divination using plastrons). However, the term osteomancy might be more appropriate, referring to divination using bones. Many archaeological sites along the south coast and offlying islands of the Korean peninsula show that deer and pig scapulae were used in divination during the Korean Protohistoric Period, c.
|
|
The farm also releases specimens to the wild as part of an effort to repopulate the Caribbean Sea. Fat from turtles is also used in the Caribbean and in Mexico as a main ingredient in cosmetics, marketed under its Spanish name crema de tortuga. Turtle plastrons (the part of the shell that covers a tortoise on the bottom) are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine; according to statistics, Taiwan imports hundreds of tons of plastrons every year. A popular medicinal preparation based on powdered turtle plastron (and a variety of herbs) is the guilinggao jelly; more recently, though, it is typically made with only herbal ingredients.
|
|
They are similar to the northeastern variant, but their carapace base color is grey, dark brown, or coffee rather than black. Their pale plastrons have central dark areas resembling an exclamation point. Their heads and limbs are generally pale yellow to orange. The average size is slightly smaller than usual- 30–35 cm.
|
|
Carapaces of the eastern variants are often light grey or whitish between the scutes. Their plastrons are mostly dark in a symmetrical mottled pattern. Size tends to be smaller on average than northeastern variants, also reaching sexual maturity at a smaller size. Fore limbs feature a slightly enlarged scale on the side of the 'elbow'.
|
|
The two distinct morphological differences between Cyclemys species are based on the main color of their plastrons - species with yellow bellies (C. atripons, C. dentata, and C. pulchristiata), and species with dark bellies (C. enigmatica, C. fusca, C. gemeli, and C. oldhamii). Synonyms of Cyclemys (ex errore) include: Cyclemus Li, Cyclemis Good, and Cyclemy Mao.
|
|
Hatchlings have wide head and neck stripes and yellow plastrons. The bridge is predominantly yellow with black stripes or entirely black. It is mostly morphologically indistinguishable from the western black-bridged leaf turtle, C. atripons, requiring genetic sampling to confidently identify. Some authorities consider this species to be a junior synonym to or a subspecies of C. atripons.
|
|
The head, neck, tail, and limbs are grayish brown on adults. The neck is longer than the vertebra under its carapace and is fringed with small skin flaps along both sides. Hatchlings show a pink to reddish tinge in the underside edge of their carapaces and plastrons that gradually disappear as they grow. Each forefoot has five webbed claws.
|
|
High demand for turtle plastrons for Shang divination rites and archaeological findings of large caches of turtle shells has led some scholars to speculate that Mauremys reevesii may have been farmed for this purpose in antiquity. M. reevesii is one of the species raised on China's modern-day turtle farms. According to a 1998 survey, 548 farms raised this turtle species in four provinces in China. The statistical data from different provinces were in different formats; however, two provinces reported 20,650 turtles living on 26 farms, with 5,000 animals reproduced annually; the other two provinces reported the total weight of their turtles, namely some 260 tons of these animals on 522 farms. Over the five-year period, 1990–1995, 13 traditional Chinese medicine factories consumed 430 tons of C. reevesii plastrons.
|
|
Oracle bone of the Shang dynasty, ancient China In China, oracle bones were used for divination in the late Shang dynasty, (c. 1600–1046 BC). Diviners applied heat to these bones, usually ox scapulae or tortoise plastrons, and interpreted the resulting cracks. A different divining method, using the stalks of the yarrow plant, was practiced in the subsequent Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC).
|
|
Crocodile meat is occasionally eaten as an "exotic" delicacy in the western world. Alligator meat is farmed for human consumption in the United States. Turtle meat is considered a delicacy in Asian cuisine, while turtle soup was once highly prized in English cuisine also. Turtle plastrons (shells) are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine; hundreds of tons of them are imported into Taiwan each year.
|
|
Chinese geomantic compass c. 1760 from the National Maritime Museum in London The luopan is an image of the cosmos (a world model) based on tortoise plastrons used in divination. At its most basic level it serves as a means to assign proper positions in time and space, like the Ming Tang (Hall of Light). The markings are similar to those on a liubo board.
|
|
The coloration on the neck, chin, and inner legs is more vibrant in males than in females who display a pale yellowish color in those areas. Hatchlings range in size from in length (straight carapace measurement). The plastrons of hatchlings are dull gray to brown. Their tail usually equals the length of the carapace and their neck and legs lack the bright coloration found in adults.
|
|
Most aquatic turtles have flat, streamlined shells, which aid in swimming and diving. American snapping turtles and musk turtles have small, cross-shaped plastrons that give them more efficient leg movement for walking along the bottom of ponds and streams, and the Belawan turtle (Cirebon, West Java) has a sunken- back soft shell. The shell's color may vary. Shells are commonly colored brown, black, or olive green.
|
|
While the use of bones in divination has been practiced almost globally, such divination involving fire or heat has generally been found in Asia and the Asian-derived North American cultures. The use of heat to crack scapulae (pyro-scapulimancy) originated in ancient China, the earliest evidence of which extends back to the 4th millennium BCE, with archaeological finds from Liaoning, but these were not inscribed. In Neolithic China at a variety of sites, the scapulae of cattle, sheep, pigs and deer used in pyromancy have been found, and the practice appears to have become quite common by the end of the third millennium BCE. Scapulae were unearthed along with smaller numbers of pitless plastrons in the Nánguānwài (南關外) stage at Zhengzhou, Henan; scapulae as well as smaller numbers of plastrons with chiseled pits were also discovered in the Lower and Upper Erligang stages.
|
|
Hatchling's carapaces also are as wide as they are long and lack the pyramidal pattern found in older turtles. The eastern box turtle (Terrapene c. carolina) and Blanding's turtle are similar in appearance to the wood turtle and all three live in overlapping habitats. However, unlike the wood turtle, both Blanding's turtle and the eastern box turtle have hinged plastrons that allow them to completely close their shells.
|
|
Li, 1958: org desc. Cyclemys flavomarginata hainanensis) Li, 1958, was not aware of the description from Bourret (1939) of C. galbinifrons and thus believed to have a new subspecies of Cuora flavomarginata the only Cuora species known at this time with at least some similarities. According to some, specimens from Hainan do not always have fully black plastrons (always the case in mainland C. g. galbinifrons), but sometimes lighter parts.
|
|
A leatherback turtle with eggs, photo taken on Montjoly beach (French Guiana) While other sea turtle species almost always return to their hatching beach, leatherbacks may choose another beach within the region. They choose beaches with soft sand because their softer shells and plastrons are easily damaged by hard rocks. Nesting beaches also have shallower approach angles from the sea. This is a vulnerability for the turtles because such beaches easily erode.
|
|
Plastron view of a young red-footed tortoise from Brazil, also called 'cherryhead' The southern variants' carapaces are often not quite black to dark brown, sometimes with light grey or whitish between the scutes. Their plastrons are mostly dark in a symmetrical mottled pattern. Size tends to be larger on average then northeastern variants, with the largest individuals found in this area. Fore limbs feature a slightly enlarged scale on the side of the 'elbow'.
|
|
A small, shy tortoise with a relatively variable shell, they can often be distinguished by their prominent "bowsprits", which are protrusions of the "gular" shields, from their plastrons under their chins. These are used by males to fight for territory or females. Uniquely, this species has only one gular shield under its chin; all other southern African tortoises have a divided/double scaled gular. Angulate specimens have five claws on their front legs and four on each back leg.
|
|
It is used for motorcycle safety clothing, especially in the areas featuring padding such as shoulders and elbows. In fencing it is used in the protective jackets, breeches, plastrons and the bib of the masks. It is increasingly being used in the peto, the padded covering which protects the picadors' horses in the bullring. Speed skaters also frequently wear an under-layer of Kevlar fabric to prevent potential wounds from skates in the event of a fall or collision.
|
|
The inscriptions are written on the exterior and interior of the rim, and the exterior of the belly of the large type of vats. The characters are mostly written singly; character compounds or sentences are rarely seen. The contemporary Chinese character's set principles were clearly visible in ancient China's Jiǎgǔwén characters(甲骨文) carved on ox scapulas and tortoise plastrons around 14th - 11th century BCE (). Brush-written examples decay over time and have not survived.
|
|
In adults, only the posterior marginal scutes are serrated. Adults of Cyclemys also develop a joint in the middle of their plastrons (known as a plastral hinge), enabling them to articulate the front and rear halves to some extent. Unlike the closely related Cuora, which can completely close its shell because of the hinge, Cyclemys plastral hinges only close the shell partially. The plastral hinge may also play a significant role in facilitating egg-laying in adult females.
|
|
Adult males have longer tails and claws than females. The males' plastrons are shorter than the females', presumably to accommodate the males' larger tails. The carapaces of males are wider and less domed than the females', and males typically have wider heads than females. The sex of juveniles and subadults cannot be determined through external anatomy, but can be observed through dissection, laparoscopy (an operation performed on the abdomen), histological examination (cell anatomy), and radioimmunological assays (immune study dealing with radiolabeling).
|
|
Mature C. mydas front appendages have only a single claw (as opposed to the hawksbill two), although a second claw is sometimes prominent in young specimens. The carapace of the turtle has various color patterns that change over time. Hatchlings of Chelonia mydas, like those of other marine turtles, have mostly black carapaces and light-colored plastrons. Carapaces of juveniles turn dark brown to olive, while those of mature adults are either entirely brown, spotted or marbled with variegated rays.
|
|
The skin ranges from yellow to brown in color, and the shell is typically reddish brown. No external differences in sex are seen until the turtle becomes an adult, the most obvious difference being the adult males have thicker tails and shorter plastrons (lower shells) than the females. The loggerhead sea turtle is found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. It spends most of its life in saltwater and estuarine habitats, with females briefly coming ashore to lay eggs.
|
|
Crocodiles have the abdominal ribs modified into gastralia Tyrannosaurus gastralia Gastralia (singular gastralium) are dermal bones found in the ventral body wall of modern crocodilian and Sphenodon species. They are found between the sternum and pelvis, and do not articulate with the vertebrae. In these reptiles, gastralia provide support for the abdomen and attachment sites for abdominal muscles. Gastralia may have been derived from the ventral scales found in animals like rhipidistians, labyrinthodonts, and Acanthostega, and may be related to ventral elements of turtle plastrons.
|
|
Holes drilled into an oracle bone The bones or shells were cleaned of meat and then prepared by sawing, scraping, smoothing and even polishing to create convenient, flat surfaces. The predominance of scapulae and later of plastrons is also thought to be related to their convenience as large, flat surfaces needing minimal preparation. There is also speculation that only female tortoise shells were used, as these are significantly less concave. Pits or hollows were then drilled or chiseled partway through the bone or shell in orderly series.
|
|
Oxygen diffuses into the air film at a higher rate than nitrogen diffuses out. However, water surrounding the insect can become oxygen-depleted if there is no water movement, so many such insects in still water actively direct a flow of water over their bodies. The inorganic gill mechanism allows aquatic insects with plastrons to remain constantly submerged. Examples include many beetles in the family Elmidae, aquatic weevils, and true bugs in the family Aphelocheiridae, as well as at least one species of ricinuleid arachnid.
|
|
Some myths survive in theatrical or literary formats as plays or novels, others are still collected from the oral traditions of China and surrounding areas. Other material can be gleaned from examining various other artifacts such as Chinese ritual bronzes, ceramics, paintings, silk tapestries and elements of Chinese architecture. The oldest written sources of Chinese mythology are short inscriptions, rather than literature as such. The earliest written evidence is found in the Oracle bone script, written on scapulae or tortoise plastrons, in the process of the divination practices Shang dynasty (ended approximately 1046 BCE).
|
|
The shells of cyamodontoids differ from those of turtles in several ways. Turtle shells are fused to their skeletons in several regions, including the vertebrae, ribs, gastralia (belly ribs), and pectoral girdles, but cyamodontoid shells overly skeletal bones without any fusion. Turtle shells are also composed of two layers of osteoderms, while cyamodontoid shells only have one layer. Cyamodontoids typically have more osteoderms forming their carapaces and plastrons (upper and lower shells) than do turtles, and the osteoderms have less well-defined shapes than the geometric scutes of turtles.
|
|
Over time, and up to 1970, additional pieces were added, including Plastrons for past Grand Bards, also produced by Francis Cargeeg.Soskernow – Friends of Kernow Lady of Cornwall and flower girls at the 2007 Gorsedh (Penzance) The Gorsedh Kernow has now opened up to all forms of revived Cornish language, and states its aim as "to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall". The Gorsedh also encourages the study of the arts and history. It has been held annually since and has become an important institution in Cornwall's cultural and civic life.
|
|
The African mud turtles range from being small in size, only carapace length for adult Pelusios nanus, to moderately large, for adult Pelusios sinuatus, while the large majority of species fall between carapace length. The carapaces are oblong, moderately high-domed, and the plastrons are large and hinged which is what distinguishes them from the Pelomedusa. The plastron contains a mesoplastron and also well-developed plastral buttresses that articulate with the costals on each side of the carapace. The carapace has 11 pairs of sutured peripherals around its margin and a neck without costiform processes.
|
|
Hatchlings have wide head and neck stripes and yellow plastrons with large, dark spots. The common name of the species refers to the color of the bridge (the area where the plastron and the carapace meet), which is predominantly yellow with black stripes or entirely black. C. atripons is morphologically almost indistinguishable from C. pulchristiata, the eastern black-bridged leaf turtle.Fritz, U., Guicking, D., Auer, M., Sommer, R. S., Wink, M. and Hundsdörfer, A. K. (2008), Diversity of the Southeast Asian leaf turtle genus Cyclemys: how many leaves on its tree of life?.
|
|
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula or turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. Scapulimancy is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for the divination, plastromancy if turtle plastrons were used. Diviners would submit questions to deities regarding future weather, crop planting, the fortunes of members of the royal family, military endeavors, and other similar topics. These questions were carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script using a sharp tool.
|
|
These turtles are only active in the cooler spring months. The spotted turtle is declining throughout eastern North America due to habitat loss and poaching. One study focused specifically on the Southeastern population, and recorded that females had greater shell heights, heavier body masses, and longer plastrons than males. In another study, where radio-telemetry was used, spotted turtle behavior was observed in northeastern America, where distinct seasonal movement patterns revealed that spotted turtles exhibited a positive association in wetlands hosting abundant wood frog egg masses in spring and from spring to late summer, a negative association in forested wetlands was detected.
|
|
Oracle bone script () was the form of Chinese characters used on oracle bonesanimal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divinationin the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The vast majority, amounting to over 50,000 inscribed items, were found at the Yinxu site (in Xiaotun, near modern Anyang, Henan Province). They record pyromantic divinations of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding, whose accession is dated by different scholars at 1250 BC or 1200 BC.Keightley 1978, p. 228 After the Shang were overthrown by the Zhou dynasty in c.
|
|
The species is found within the southeastern coastal plain of the United States, from extreme southeastern Virginia southward through all of Florida and westward to the vicinity of Mobile Bay, Alabama. The nominate race (P. f. floridana) occupies most of the species' geographic range but is replaced in the Florida peninsula by the peninsula cooter (Pseudemys peninsularis), which is primarily distinguished by differences in head markings. Both races can be distinguished from sympatric Pseudemys species by the immaculate yellow color of their plastrons and the lack of a U-shaped cusp in the upper jaw (characteristic of the Florida redbelly turtle).
|
|
A right- hand finger tab to protect the hand while the string is drawn Most modern archers wear a bracer (also known as an arm-guard) to protect the inside of the bow arm from being hit by the string and prevent clothing from catching the bowstring. The bracer does not brace the arm; the word comes from the armoury term "brassard", meaning an armoured sleeve or badge. The Navajo people have developed highly ornamented bracers as non-functional items of adornment. Some archers (nearly all female archers) wear protection on their chests, called chestguards or plastrons.
|
|
Most of the rituals outlined above indicate the use of the hearth, floor, or exterior ground as the place to spread ashes. But some examples of spodomancy call for the use of other types of surfaces. Consider the use of bone: Divination techniques closely related to spodomancy include osteomancy (divination using bones, particularly that practice which heats them to produce cracks which are portentious), plastromancy (divination using turtle plastrons), scapulimancy (divination using the shoulder blade; the Scottish term is slinneanachd), and sternomancy (divination using the sternum). However, in these practices, fire is used to cause cracks to appear in the bone.
|
|
Male box turtles also include concave plastrons, thicker tails with the cloaca closer to the tip, and longer rear legs with larger curved claws which are used to grip the female shell during mating. They also have a similar internal anatomy to freshwater turtles except for the fact that they lack a degenerative cloacal bursae because they do not need to hibernate in water. Most adults have about a 125–130 mm carapace length, in where the females were significantly longer than males. It has also been seen that the number of years they can live up to is between 30 and 40 years old.
|
|
The earliest surviving examples of writing in China—inscriptions on so-called "oracle bones", tortoise plastrons and ox scapulae used for divination—date from around 1200 BC in the late Shang dynasty. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived. Historians have found that the type of media used had an effect on what the writing was documenting and how it was used. In 2003, archaeologists reported discoveries of isolated tortoise-shell carvings dating back to the 7th millennium BC, but whether or not these symbols are related to the characters of the later oracle-bone script is disputed.
|
|
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at the Yinxu site near modern Anyang identified as the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1250 BC. These are the oracle bones, short inscriptions carved on tortoise plastrons and ox scapulae for divinatory purposes, as well as a few brief bronze inscriptions. The language written is undoubtedly an early form of Chinese, but is difficult to interpret due to the limited subject matter and high proportion of proper names. Only half of the 4,000 characters used have been identified with certainty. Little is known about the grammar of this language, but it seems much less reliant on grammatical particles than Classical Chinese.
|
|
In ancient China, the Jiǎgǔwén characters carved on ox scapula and tortoise plastrons showed no indication of stroke order. The characters show huge variations from piece to piece, sometimes even within one piece. During the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, the characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone (to be carved in a workshop later). Although the brush-written stroke order is not discernible after carving, there exists some evidence that it was not entirely idiosyncratic: a few of the characters, often marginal administrative notations recording the provenance of the shells or bones, were not later recarved, and the stroke order of these characters tends to resemble traditional and modern stroke order.
|
|
Tortoise plastron with divination inscription The oracle bones are mostly tortoise plastrons (ventral or belly shells, probably female) and ox scapulae (shoulder blades), although some are the carapace (dorsal or back shells) of tortoises, and a few are ox rib bones, scapulae of sheep, boars, horses and deer, and some other animal bones. The skulls of deer, oxen and humans have also been found with inscriptions on them, although these are very rare and appear to have been inscribed for record keeping or practice rather than for actual divination; in one case, inscribed deer antlers were reported, but Keightley (1978) reports that they are fake. Neolithic diviners in China had long been heating the bones of deer, sheep, pigs and cattle for similar purposes; evidence for this in Liaoning has been found dating to the late fourth millennium BCE. However, over time, the use of ox bones increased, and use of tortoise shells does not appear until early Shang culture.
|
|