Also the construction "short legged turtle" implies a legged turtle that is short. A hyphen is required to indicate whether it is the adjective or the noun receiving the qualifier.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'