Tortoises from the collection at Calderglen Zoo in East Kilbride could help scientists figure out the secrets of eternal youth.
The resident population of two Egyptian and two Horsfield tortoises formed part of a study of turtles and tortoises living in zoos and aquariums recently published in the prestigious 'Science' journal, posing the question; is ageing inevitable for all living organisms?
And the results appear to show that testudines – the order to which tortoises and turtles belong – do age differently from humans, living in many cases for more than 100 years with little or few signs of physical decline.
