Yet the clan has evolved a dazzling array of variations on its blockbuster theme , allowing it to colonize every continent save Antarctica and nearly every type of biome nested therein : deserts ; rainforests ; oceans ; rivers ; bogs ; mountains ; New Brunswick , Canada ; New Brunswick , N.J. '' Turtles can persist in habitats where little else can survive , '' said Dr. J. Whitfield Gibbons , a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia in Athens .