

Green sea turtles are a longer-living species and may live to be 80 years or more.

In the United States, we see them most often in the southeast, Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. Birds, fish, crabs, and mammals prey upon hatchlings and juveniles, and adult green sea turtles are the targets of some larger species of shark. Adults often live along coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests, traveling ashore every few years to nest. As hatchlings, surviving turtles often float passively in oceanic currents until they reach a size where they can swim against the flowing waters. They are highly migratory, traveling long distances in the ocean immediately after hatching and making their way into the ocean. Green turtles live throughout the global ocean, primarily in subtropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and in the Mediterranean Sea. Green sea turtles serve important roles in keeping seagrass beds (and their surrounding ecosystems) healthy, operating like lawn mowers that remove sick or dead grasses and making room for new or faster growth. The foods they eat most often depend on where they live, with individuals living in shallower waters often graze on species found in permanent seagrass beds or algae that grow on rocks and other fixed structures, while individuals traveling further offshore will eat marine vegetation floating through the water column. Juveniles and adults that don’t have other options may also eat sponges, small invertebrates, and small fish. Green sea turtles mostly munch on algae and sea grasses in adulthood, making them the only herbivorous species of sea turtles. Males are, on average, slightly larger than females when fully grown. They can reach lengths of four feet and weigh anywhere from 300 to 350 pounds. Other distinctive characteristics are the two large scales located between their eyes and their serrated beak on their lower jaws. Green sea turtles have four paddle-shaped flippers that allow them to move quickly and effortlessly through the ocean. Like all other sea turtles, green turtles must surface to breathe oxygen, though not frequently due to their lower metabolic rates, and nostrils on their heads help them to do so. On their heads are yellow or brown markings that are unique to each individual.
Species full movie puerto rico skin#
Green turtles get their name from the color of their bodies, but it isn’t their skin that is green - it’s their fat cells, which get their coloration from their vegetation-rich diet! The turtles’ shells, which cover all of the animals’ bodies except for their heads and flippers, are darker in color, usually some combination of brown, olive, gray, or black, and their undersides are a lighter yellowish-white color. If you do, you know they so totally rock! You may recognize this species from a popular family movie about a missing clownfish. They are the largest of all the hard-shelled sea turtles and the only one with a strictly herbivorous diet. The green sea turtle ( Chelonia mydas) is one of the seven sea turtle species that inhabits the global ocean. 385, fig'd, Rico, P.A diver swims behind a green sea turtle in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. 382, Checklist & new species, Checklists, Documentation, Dominican Republic, fig'd, First record, Land, Nectopsyche cubana, Nectopsyche cubana : (Trichoptera) : New record, Neotropical region, New taxa, Nomenclature, Ochrotrichia (Merotrichia) ceer : (Trichoptera) : Sp nov : Puerto, Ochrotrichia (Metrichia) squamigera : (Trichoptera) : Sp nov : Puerto, Publications, Puerto Rico, Rico, P. 380, Central America, Cernotina mastelleri : (Trichoptera) : Sp nov : Puerto Rico, P. 383, Cariboptila trispinata : (Trichoptera) : Sp nov : Puerto Rico, P. 383, Alisotrichia setigera : (Trichoptera) : Sp nov : Puerto Rico, P. Insecta, Alisotrichia circinata : (Trichoptera) : Sp nov : Puerto Rico, P. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of WashingtonProceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
