Mock Turtle he was a Turtle the Mock Turtle answers, "We called him tortoise because he taught us!" ('tortoise' and 'taught us' both being pronounced <tɔːtʊs> in Carroll's dialect). To say that the Mock Turtle's name is a pun on the name of the soup is incomplete. The Tenniel illustration of the Mock Turtle specifically depicts it as a collection of creatures that make up the ingredients of mock turtle soup; they are not random. The pun is not only of the name, but of the nature of the soup itself. Traditionally, mock turtle soup takes the parts of a calf that
Chinese softshell turtle lesser Chinese softshell turtle ("P. parviformis") and Hunan softshell turtle ("P. axenaria"). The Chinese softshell turtle is a vulnerable species, threatened by habitat loss and collection for food such as turtle soup. Millions are now farmed, especially in China, to support the food industry, and it is the world's economically most important turtle. Females of the Chinese softshell turtle can reach up to in carapace length, while the smaller males reach , but however have longer tails than the females. Maturity is reached at a carapace length of . It has webbed feet for swimming. They are called "softshell" because