"The Big MAC" And "The Littles" In The Turtle Kingdom

By+Qiao+Tielun

500 grams and 500 kilograms, the differences between them are not fragment. In the realm of turtles, however, there is has such a big gap between two roles .

The big MAC

leatherback turtles

The turtle species have been living on the earth for 200 million years. Under the protection of their own shells, they survived the glacial period, global warming, drought and the crust rise, ultimately survive to this day. If you would like to ask which one is the world's largest turtle, many people will think of the Galapagos elephant tortoise promoting Darwins theory of evolution. However, it is not the largest living turtle now. The “big”leading role of this article is the giant tortoise——leatherback turtle, which may grow to 500 kilograms from the ocean.

Big eaters

The main food for leatherback turtles is jellyfish, it also eat some tunica animals and mollusc. They are all big eaters, can consume the food equivalent of 70% of their body weight.

The unusual bulk

Leatherback turtle has the shape according with fluid dynamics in the largest scale in all aquatic turtles. Its whole body is black dotted with gray spots. The female has a pink color on the head and throat, their size is also larger than males. Their legs are flat lie oars, with just traces of degraded toes. The proportion of leatherback turtles forelimbs and the body is the largest among all the turtles, which provides a powerful tool for swimming. Turtles are notoriously slow, but the leatherback turtle is very flexible in the water, it can swim like “fly”, reach the speed of 35 km!

The secret of

breathing in the water

Turtle is the reptile breathing with lungs, but 70% of the living turtles live a aquatic life, leatherback turtles is a tortoise kind of extremely strong aquatic ability. They spend almost all the life in the sea, the female ashore only when laying eggs. The leatherback turtles live in the ocean for a long time, what else breathe way do they have besides lungs?

Obviously, for leatherback turtles and other highly aquatic turtle, lung is not their only respiratory organs. There is microvascular system in the mucous membrane on their oropharyngeal cavity wall to exchange gases, the anal sac on the material thin wall can also breathe. Even in the sea water with low oxygen level, the leatherback turtle will not be strangled. They sink under the sea for 20 hours. In addition, there is special contercurent heat pumping system on their shoulders, combined with a layer of fat, enabling them to descend to 1000 meters deep sea. Such a depth has surpassed the limits of all other reptiles.The littles

Egyptian tortoises

Wide footprint

On the distribution range, no turtle is more widely distributed than leatherback turtles. They appear in all tropical and temperate oceans in the world, even in the cold polar water, there are also their records. They mainly live in the Atlantic ocean, Indian ocean and the warm water domain of the Pacific ocean. Their breeding base is located in north latitude 30 degrees and south latitude 20 degrees. Some individuals can occasionally current to Iceland of north latitude 70 °and Uruguay of north latitude 30 °. The migration distance of leatherback turtles is longer than any other sea turtles, from the temperate waters where they prey to the tropical waters, which takes several months, and 7000km long in distance.

Difficult situation

Leatherback turtles go into the spawning season every may to July, female turtles can swim back to their birthplaces every few years, climbing up the beach and lay eggs. They have astonishing fecundity, their egg production is also among the top of all the turtles. Each time, they lay about 100 eggs of the size of tennis, about 80% of them are fertilized. They can produce 4 to 10 nests of eggs during a breeding season. Two months later, small leatherback turtles will be hatched and run towards the sea. Although many of the small leatherback turtles return to the sea, there are many difficulties and obstacles on the road, therefore less than 1% of the individuals can grow up into a turtle.

Clever little figure

Egyptian turtle is the typical testudinidae species, with full and towering carapace, the head and limbs are covered with large scales. Their shells look simple, actually very complex: the towering carapace and flat shell consists of angle quality bone plate. The lower layer of the bone plate is the bone supporting the shell, which is like the keel frame of a house; the plate surface is the scutellum, its essence is a specialized scales, like tiles of the house, closely covering on the shield board, each turtles shield is in different colors and textures.

Breathing method of expiration first and inhale then

Tortoises live on land only, they do not have the complex ways of breathing as aquatic turtles. Although they are reptiles using lungs to breathe, as the thick shell, the lungs cannot breathe freely like other animals. It always breathe with the contractions of the neck and limbs. First breath, then inhale, this special way is called “turtle suck”.