Leatherback Sea Turtle

Overview

The largest living turtle, weighing up to 700 kg, and the only sea turtle lacking a hard shell. Instead of bony scutes it has a thick, leathery, ridged skin covering a mosaic of small bone plates, and it is the deepest-diving reptile, recorded below 1,200 m. It tolerates cold water via counter-current heat exchange and has no claws on its flippers.

Classification

The Leatherback Sea Turtle belongs to the suborder Cryptodira (hidden-neck turtles) and the family Dermochelyidae. It is a monotypic family represented by the leatherback, the only turtle without a hard bony shell. Its scientific name is Dermochelys coriacea.

Appearance & Distinguishing Features

Instead of a rigid carapace it has a leathery, flexible skin stretched over bony plates, with seven longitudinal ridges running down the back. It is the largest living turtle, reaching more than 2 m and 500 kg.

Habitat & Distribution

It is a highly pelagic, circumglobal species that ranges from tropical seas into cold temperate and even subpolar waters by following jellyfish blooms.

Diet & Feeding

It feeds almost exclusively on soft-bodied prey, especially jellyfish and salps, which it locates visually in the water column.

Behavior & Conservation

It makes deep dives exceeding 1,000 m and undertakes vast trans-oceanic migrations. Listed under CITES Appendix I, it is vulnerable to longline and gillnet bycatch and ingestion of plastic mistaken for jellyfish.

Popularity & Recognition

The leatherback is a flagship species for marine conservation and a symbol of the open ocean's fragility.