I do too, but I'm not sure how to even guess at ages of turtles. I know they can live for a very long a time though.
Not the one I helped-- but they were smaller. Bigger than the box turtle, but small compared to how big snappers can get. It just hissed and tried to bite. But to be fair I did pick them up to move them out of the middle of the road ASAP. I, too, bite and hiss when picked up.
Bigger generally means older, but it's tricky because it's dependent on temperature and access to food. You can count the rings on the shell, which I believe is more reliable but not entirely so.
Ah, I thought that with turtles, generally speaking, bigger meant older. I wasn't 100% sure though. And I thought I read somewhere that counting rings isn't really accurate but I can't remember if it was talking about trees or turtles so I didn't bother counting them. There were quite a few though!
As far as I know it's not super accurate with turtles, though I don't know why. It is entirely accurate in dicot trees as long as they live in an area with a period where growth stops entirely or slows down almost to a standstill.
Ahhh, I see. Well I mean, there are of course limitations. You're never going to see a 10 foot long box turtle, for example. So I figure their growth once they hit adulthood would have to slow down to...well-- turtle-like speeds. But I know what you mean. Not only do food and temperature play a factor in their size, but genetics would have to play their part too. So you can't say that a 4" box turtle is older than a 3" box turtle just by looking at their size, is what you're getting at.