Reptile Facts

eduardo-:

To look at it, most people wouldn’t be able to tell you what on earth they’re looking at in this photo. Can you?

If you can’t, don’t feel too down because it’s totally unexpected. Defying expectations, it’s the throat of a critically endangered species, the Leatherback Sea Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). You wouldn’t expect turtles to be equipped with such savage hardware, but there’s actually a very good reason for it.

You see, the reason for their teeth is actually pretty logical. Their main diet is composed of Jellyfish, which although seemingly large relative to the turtle, are almost entirely devoid of nutritional value (owing to their composition of mostly water). Because of this, the turtle needs to consume a lot of them.

That presents its own challenges. Being that they’re atmospheric-breathing animals hunting submerged, there’s the potential problem of flooding their stomach with seawater which could lead to a whole host of issues. But, their throat has got them covered.

Basically, these backwards-facing hooks ensure that once something is in their mouth, it can’t escape back into the water. As a result, they have the capability of holding their prey in their mouth while they expel the water that was taken in with it, thus leaving their stomach with plenty of space for the copious amounts of jellys they need to consume! They accomplish this by constricting the muscles in their esophagus gradually which forces the water to rush back out of their mouth.

Nature is a pretty cool thing sometimes. This is just one of the cool adaptations that turtles have developed over their evolutionary course of some 100 million years.

mad-as-a-marine-biologist: Female Hawksbill turtles are monogamous.  

Because “New insight into Hawksbill Turtles’ mating patterns” or “Hawksbill turtles’ monogamous sex life revealed” sounded creepy and overfamiliar. 

Dr David S Richardson and Karl Phillips from the University of East Anglia looked at turtle nests on Cousine Island in the Seychelles, an eco-tourism holiday destination favoured by the rich and famous.

Working with the islands’ conservation staff they used a non-harmful procedure to collect DNA from the hard skin of the flipper, or around the shell.

The researchers looked at 43 mothers and 1600 young to reconstruct a genetic model of each nestling’s father, without having to catch the males out at sea. ‘It’s important to do this so that we can understand their mating system and see how much genetic variation there is within the population’ says Richardson.

This is the first comprehensive study into Hawksbill Turtle mating patterns and the findings may help conservationists refocus efforts to where they’re needed.

…

The scientists were surprised then to find all of the eggs from an individual female are normally fathered by the same male. This means the mothers mate only once and then store the sperm for the entire mating season, fertilising all their eggs with it.

Monogamy in the animal kingdom is the exception rather than the rule. Many females are forced to mate multiple times by aggressive males, or prefer to mate multiply to ensure they have the best quality sperm.

‘If they mate with one male and then met another one that was in some way better, bigger or stronger, they might re-mate and have a mix of eggs fertilised by both,’ Richardson explains. ‘However, it seems female Hawksbills would rather mate just once, far away from their nesting site, then store the sperm, perhaps to avoid unwanted male attention.’

…

Now the scientists know that not only are there lots of males fathering the nestlings, but there are many male turtles scattered far across the Indian Ocean. Conservationists can use this information to widen their efforts, from the beaches where the females lay their nests to the entire Indian Ocean area, in order to protect males too.

Read more.

By Harriet Jarlett | Planet Earth Online

(via moreanimalia)

lickystickypickywe:

Sea turtles start their lives in eggs buried in the sand. After a two-month incubation, the young turtles hatch and run to the sea, facing attack by a variety of predators (e.g., birds, crabs, fish) along the way. They drift at sea until they are about a foot long and then, depending on the species, may move closer to shore to feed.

Sea turtles mature at around age 30. The males then spend their whole lives at sea, while females mate with the males at sea and then go to the beach to dig a hole and lay their eggs. Female sea turtles may lay eggs several times during a single season. All seven species of sea turtles are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Threats to sea turtles today include the harvesting of their eggs for human consumption, entanglement and entrapment in fishing gear, ingestion of litter and coastal development.

(via eduardo-)

animals-animals-animals:

Juvenile Loggerhead Sea Turtle (by Chris Johnson)

rhamphotheca:

Stranding Network Volunteers Overcome Unfavorable Conditions to Save Endangered Sea Turtles

by Raechel Kelly and Meagan Racey

On a cold day last December, volunteer Bill Allan scanned the Cape Cod beach in the early morning sunlight, searching for smooth flippers and scaly green shells. Focusing just beyond shore, his eyes settled on a lifeless sea turtle bobbing in the waves.

Without a second thought, Allan stripped to his underwear and plunged into the 40-degree ocean. As he waded through the chest-deep water, he noticed the turtle’s head slowly rise above the waves, giving Allan a sense of relief and hope.

Like many turtles rescued by Allan, this one suffered from cold stunning. This condition, similar to hypothermia in humans, leaves turtles disoriented and unable to migrate to warmer waters…

(read more: USFWS Endangered Species Bulletin)     

(photo: New England Aquarium)

lickystickypickywe:

Baby green turtle hatchling swimming to the sea in Indonesia.

These marine turtles fulfill important roles in marine ecosystems. By snacking on seagrasses and algae, green turtles both help to maintain the seagrass beds and make them more productive.

Without grazing by green turtles, the seagrass blades grow tall and get choked by sediments that obscure the light and promote disease.

Additionally, seagrass consumed by green turtles is quickly digested and becomes available as recycled nutrients to the many species of plants and animals that live in the seagrass ecosystem. Seagrass beds also function as nurseries for several species of invertebrates and fish, many of which are of considerable value to commercial fisheries and therefore important to human food security.

(via allcreatures)

reptiglo:

Baby Olive Ridley Sea Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) that have recently hatched at Ostional, Costa Rica

Handful of Turtles by monarchzman on Flickr