Page 140 - (DK) Super Shark Encyclopedia: And Other Creatures of the Deep

SUPER CLUTCH AT A GLANCE

LOGGERHEAD TURTLE

• SIZE 3–9 ⁄4 ft (0.9–2.8 m) long
1
Turtles live in fresh and salty waters—but marine turtles grow
much bigger than their cousins on land. Instead of legs they have • HABITAT Tropical and warm ocean waters
huge, paddlelike flippers that are ideal for swimming, so they spend • LOCATION Atlantic, Indian,
and Pacific Oceans,
most of their lives in the ocean. All turtles produce shelled eggs, so Mediterranean Sea
even ocean species have to visit the shore to lay them—producing • DIET Sea animals
more than a hundred at a time. and seaweed

Upper shell is slightly
Baby turtles hatch heart-shaped and made
from round, up of horny plates
leathery eggs
Ovaries can
produce as many as
200 eggs at a time

RACE TO THE SEA

Loggerhead turtles bury their
eggs on sandy beaches, well
out of reach of the tide. When
they hatch, the babies have
to dig their way out—before
Lower shell
waddling as fast as they can (plastron) is
to the ocean. Two or three flatter and has
claws on each fewer plates
back flipper
Back flippers are
used for swimming
and digging nests
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