What is a Koopa?

When we moved across country, my fiance and I rejoined the twenty-first century. At our old apartment we decided not to have internetz as we worked opposite schedules and were trying to save money anyway. Well, last weekend I told him to try hooking up the Wii to the wireless we have. Lo and behold, I was right that it would be fairly easy to do this. What resulted was my fiance spending $20 on buying some old Ninetendo games, Donkey Kong 2 and Super Mario World.

Now, I didn't grow up playing video games- honestly! So when I try playing Super Mario or any of the others it is not a trip down memory lane and I don't know any of the secrets. While failing miserably to beat a particular level I thought to myself, "What the heck is Bowser anyway?" The Super Mario Wiki tells me that Bowser is a Koopa, which is a turtle-like creature. Great, that's all good and fine since my generation has grown up with Super Mario and don't question why Bowser, or any of his eight children, are turtle-like Koopa Troopas that stand on two legs.

I went digging a bit further and found that at one short point in time someone gave Bowser a wife. Sweet! I wondered if it wasn't asexual reproduction or something since he has 8 kids and very few visible female characters. I mean, clearly, Princess Peach is chaste and waiting for Mario, so she couldn't be the mother.