While the outward appearance of turtles is enough itself to excite people's imaginations, in the legends of some eras, it also appeared as an animal with a dragon's head and turtle's body. In The Book of Mountains and Seas, there appears a mythical turtle with a bird's head and snake's tail which looks quite different from its biological counterpart.
烏龜外貌雖已足夠讓人發揮想像，但在不同時代、神話中，還是出現龍頭龜身、或如《山海經》裡鳥首虺尾的旋龜等各種造型迥異的神龜。