edHelper.com Reptiles

Earth's Oldest Animals?

---

Earth's Oldest Animals?
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.74

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		Adwaita, longest-living, record-holder, spur-thighed, gopher, reportedly, gender, warship, dispute, originally, longevity, expedition, supposedly, actual, death, controversy
	content words:		Tu'i Malila, Captain James Cook, Lord Wellesley, Alipur Zoological Gardens, Charles Darwin, HMS Beagle, Galapagos Islands, Australia Zoo, Captain John Courtenay Everard, Royal Navy

---

Print Earth's Oldest Animals?

Print Earth's Oldest Animals?  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format

	Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
	Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format

Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity

Print a proofreading activity

---

Feedback on Earth's Oldest Animals?

Leave your feedback on Earth's Oldest Animals?  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Earth's Oldest Animals? By Joyce Furstenau

---

¹     An old wives' tale says that you can tell the age of a tortoise by counting the rings on its shell. It is not true. The growth of a tortoise depends upon its access to food and water. A desert tortoise may have to go days without eating, while a gopher tortoise may have plenty of access to food.
 
²     In China, the tortoise is the symbol of longevity. There is a good reason for this. A tortoise can live a long time. A tortoise has a lifespan of a human. Some have lived many years longer. Some of these aged tortoises have even made the record books for longevity.
 
³     Tu'i Malila was a radiated tortoise from Madagascar. This tortoise was said to have been the longest-living tortoise on record. It was born around 1777. Captain James Cook gave it to the royal family while visiting Tonga on one of his voyages around 1777. Tu'i Malila died on May 19, 1965. It lived for 188 years.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Reptiles

Reptiles

---

More Lessons

High School Reading Comprehensions and High School Reading Lessons

---

Animals

Amphibians         Birds         Deserts         Fish         Freshwater         Grasslands         Insects

Invertebrates         Mammals         Oceans         Polar Regions         Rain Forest         Reptiles

---

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets

Back to School Graphic Organizers Alphabet Worksheets Sight Words Math Worksheets Mazes 50 States Monthly Themes January February March April May June July August September October November December

Fractions Place Value Time and Calendar Money Earth Day Solar System Analogies Nouns Following Directions Listening Capitalization Cursive Writing Patterns and Sequencing Dinosaurs All About Me Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade

Multiplication Division Main Idea Cause and Effect Measurement Decimals Rounding Order of Operations Verbs Community Helpers Adjectives Plants Grammar Addition and Subtraction Contractions Bulletin Board Ideas Word Searches Crossword Puzzles Printable Puzzles Reading Comprehension Reading Skills English Language Arts

Copyright © 2011 edHelper