Page 373 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

REPTILES 371

ORDER CHELONIA Leatherbacks breed mainly in the allows it to wander much more
tropics, on steeply sloping sandy widely than other turtles, reaching THROAT SPINES
Leatherback Turtle beaches, laying up to nine clutches of as far north as Iceland and almost as
eggs in each breeding season. far south as Cape Horn. Individuals The leatherback’s throat contains
Dermochelys coriacea Unusually for a reptile, the may roam huge distances—one dozens of backward-pointing
LENGTH 4 / 4 –6 ft leatherback turtle can keep its body leatherback tagged off the coast of spines that prevent jellyfish
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(1.3–1.8 m) warmer than its surroundings, thanks South America was later found on the from escaping before they are
WEIGHT Up to 2,000 lb partly to the thick layer of insulating other side of the Atlantic, 4,200 miles completely swallowed. These
(900 kg) fat beneath its skin. This (6,800 km) away. endangered turtles often die after
HABITAT Open sea eating discarded plastic bags,
carapace with large head on which they mistake for jellyfish.
parallel ridges short neck
DISTRIBUTION Tropical, subtropical, and temperate
waters worldwide JELLYFISH TRAP
The leatherback’s throat spines can be over
1 / 2 in (1 cm) long. They are regularly replaced
The leatherback is the world’s largest during the animal’s life.
marine turtle. Its carapace has a
rubbery texture, having no hard plates,
and has a tapering, pearlike shape.
Its head is not retractable, and the
leatherback is unique among turtles
in having flippers without claws. It
spends most of its life in the open sea,
returning to the coast only when it
breeds. It feeds on jellyfish and other
planktonic animals, and while it
gets most of its food near the
surface, it can dive to depths
of 3,300 ft (1,000 m).

breeding behavior. Unlike most this threat. Several weeks after an
ORDER CHELONIA ORDER CHELONIA
marine turtles, Kemp’s Ridleys lay arribada, young Kemp’s Ridleys
Kemp’s Ridley Turtle their eggs by day, and the females emerge from their eggs in the Flatback Turtle
crawl out of the sea simultaneously, thousands to make the dangerous
during mass nestings called arribadas journey down the beach and into Natator depressus
Lepidochelys kempi
(Spanish for “arrivals”). At one time, the relative safety of the sea.
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LENGTH 20–35 in LENGTH 3 / 4 –4 ft
(50–90 cm) these nestings took place throughout The adults are carnivorous bottom- (1–1.2 m)
the turtle’s range, but because the eggs feeders that mainly hunt crabs. They
WEIGHT 55–90 lb WEIGHT Up to 190 lb
(25–40 kg) were laid in such large concentrations have an unusually broad carapace, (85 kg)
in daylight, they were easy prey for and their small size makes them agile
HABITAT Coral reefs, HABITAT Coasts,
coasts human egg-harvesters and natural swimmers. The carapace changes color shallows
DISTRIBUTION Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, predators. Today, the vast majority with age: yearlings are often almost DISTRIBUTION North and northeastern Australia,
occasionally as far north as New England of Kemp’s Ridleys breed on a single black, while adults are light olive-gray. New Guinea, Arafura Sea
beach in Mexico, where their nests A closely related species, the olive
Also known as the Atlantic Ridley are protected. These turtles were also Ridley turtle (L. olivacea), lives Named after its carapace, which is
turtle, this is the smallest marine often caught as bycatch in shrimp nets, throughout the tropics. It is much less only slightly domed, the flatback has
turtle, and also the most threatened, but turtle excluding devices (TEDs) endangered than the Kemp’s Ridley, the most restricted distribution of any
largely as a result of its unusual fitted to nets have helped to reduce thanks to its wider distribution. marine turtle. It lives in shallow waters
between northern Australia and New
Guinea, reaching south along the
Great Barrier Reef. When adult,
it is largely carnivorous, feeding on
fish and bottom-dwelling animals such
as mollusks and sea squirts.
Despite their restricted range, adult
flatbacks may swim over 600 miles
(1,000 km) to reach nesting beaches.
Females dig an average of three nests
each time they breed and lay a total of
about 150 eggs. The young feed at the
surface on planktonic animals. Instead
of dispersing into deep oceanic water,
like the young of other turtle species,
they remain in the shallows over the
continental shelf. OCEAN LIFE