Abstract
Early reports suggest that the soft, flexibly-shelled tortoise Malacochersus tornieri escapes from predators into narrow rock crevices and wedges itself by inflating its body with air and using its legs as struts. Direct records of intrapulmonary pressure, heart rate, and fore- and hindlimb activity while animals were pulled from an artificial crevice (150 trials) showed no significant or sustained increase in intrapulmonary pressure associated with the wedging action. Disturbed tortoises dug in the foreclaws and rotated the forelimbs outward, wedging the body into place. The soft shell presumably evolved in response to the advantages for entering and fitting into narrow rock crevices and for improved locomotor energetics.
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