Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Have you ever heard about leatherback turtle before?

The leatherback turtle is the largest living reptile in the world and highest in the family turtle. Grow up to 2 meters and weighing nearly 900 kg in which both male and female turtles are mature, leather is the only sea turtle without a hard bony shell.

The leatherback sea turtle life of approximately 45 years, sometimes interrupted by fishing lines and nets. The largest, spots near Wales, shortly before a large size crocodile is the world's fourth largest reptile measuring over three meters and weighing about 900 kilograms.

Leatherback turtles are known to have existed since turtles evolved 110 million years ago.

With a pale white and pink spots on the top of the head, the black adult leatherback turtles are larger than other sea turtles. The nail lacquer their front flippers and scales and their back flippers are paddle shaped. The absence of a bony carapace (but covered in thick leather skin type with very small bony plates) distinguishes the leatherback turtle from the other turtles.

The back surface of the leatherback sea turtle's layer with shades of dark gray to black with white spots and dots to blur, while the underside is pale in color.

Leatherback turtles are known as pelagic animals coastal search. They love to migrate and is one of the widest assortments of sea turtle species found in every part of the world. From New Zealand, including the Cape of Good Hope in icy Norway and Alaska, leatherbacks have a global presence.

Subpopulations of the leatherback sea turtle known to exist in Malaysia, the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, Africa, Caribbean, Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, and in many other unknown places.

Leatherback sea turtle can grow in deep water (open ocean), but can be found in the water near the coast land near the feeding area. Scientists tracked a leatherback in search of food for nearly 13,000 miles in 647 days from Indonesia to the U.S.. They can survive in cold water with temperatures as low as 4.5 degrees C (40.1 ° F).

Unfortunately, there is a dramatic decline in population of leatherback sea turtles in the last three decades. Plants that female population is reportedly about 26,000 to 43,000 only around one in every thousand leatherback turtles survive to adulthood. Although the loss of the home nest egg and illegal harvesting is the cause of premature death for some, many leatherback sea turtles also are killed by plastic waste, consuming them and see their favorite jellyfish.

Exploitation of sea turtles nest in Asia have also contributed to the decline in the leatherback sea turtle population. Their eggs, considered a delicacy in Malaysia and an aphrodisiac in parts of the Caribbean, has also contributed to their extinction. Significant reductions were also reported in Mexico and Costa Rica.

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