Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-995426-20150629105538

I know the 2K12 series (as most TMNT series) likes to play fast and loose with any notion of species, and that some visuals and behaviors of animals are more cartoon than realism. But it's fun to muse all the same. :)

I know the four mutant turtles are probably either s or s, as Donatello said in Never Say Xever. And Slash is just plain...strange-looking (no doubt because of the unstable mutation). But what species best resembles the unmutated Spike? Let's take a look at some of his distinctive characteristics:



Spike is olive-colored, has a smooth shell with ringed scute patterns, has flat feet, has a longish neck, is only ever seen eating leaves (or popcorn, which turtles shouldn't eat anyway), has a beak, and superficially appears to chew his food. (Not sure if you can call it chewing since ordinary turtles have no teeth. He may just be shifting his tongue to maneuver the food to his throat, as turtles do.)



Spike can hide just about completely into his shell, including his legs.



We almost never seen Spike's plastron, but got a pretty good view of it here. Not sure if that gives any clues.



Spike is often depicted as slow and leisurely-moving, but he can actually move fairly fast when he wants to. Some land turtle species are known to be fast sprinters.

Now, I have some theories.


 * He may be a . They are a very common pet turtle species, and it's easy to imagine a New Yorker ditching a pet turtle for Raphael to rescue.  Box turtles are tortoise-like, have shell patterns as unique as fingerprints, and can completely seal their head and legs into their shell.
 * He may be an exotic turtle species whose owner got rid of him illegally. He could be a younger, which are native to the Seychelles and are known to be kept as exotic pets.  They live for centuries and are slow-maturing (usually only about to mate by around 20 years old), and become truly huge as they mature into adults, second only to the Galapagos giant tortoise in size.  Perhaps, if Spike hadn't mutated, he might have kept growing into a truly enormous tortoise who would have required a lot more space than Raph's room could provide.  However, I don't know how many years Spike was with Raphael, or how old he was when he was rescued, or how quickly younger Aldabra tortoises grow in size, or generally how big juvenile Aldabra tortoises are.  One of the big reasons I suspect Spike of being an Aldabra, is because of the distinctive shape of his feet.

What I do know is that Spike does not resemble any kind of sea turtle (he just doesn't have the legs for it), and he's probably not a diamondback terrapin (which tend to be more brightly colored). 