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(Redirected from Leatherback sea turtle)
The 'leatherback sea turtle' ('''Dermochelys coriacea''') is the biggest of all living turtles. It is the only extant species in the genus '''Dermochelys''' and the family 'Dermochelyidae'.
Leatherback turtles follow the general sea turtle body plan of having a large, dorsoventrally flattened, round body with two pairs of appendages, a large head and a short tail. Like other sea turtles, the leatherback's flattened forelimbs are specially adapted for swimming in the open ocean. Claws are noticeably absent from both pair of flippers. As the last surviving member of its family, the leatherback turtle has several distinguishing characteristics that differentiate it from other sea turtles. Its most notable feature is that it lacks the bony carapace of the other extant sea turtles. Instead of scutes, the leatherback's carapace is covered by its thick, leathery skin with embedded miniscule bony plates. Seven distinct ridges arise from the carapace, running from the anterior-to-posterior margin of the turtle's back. The entire turtle's dorsal surface is colored dark grey to black with a sporadic scattering of white blotches and spots. In a show of countershading, the turtle's underside is lightly colored.[1]
''Dermochelys coriacea'' adults average at around one to two meters long and weigh from around 250 to 700 kilograms. The largest however was a little over three meters from head-to-tail and weighed over 900 kilograms. It is the world's fourth largest reptile, behind the larger crocodiles.
The metabolic rate of the leatherback is about four times higher than one would expect for a reptile of its size; this, coupled with counter-current heat exchangers, the insulation provided by its oily flesh and large body size, allow it to maintain a body temperature as much as 18 °C (64.4 °F) above that of the surrounding water. Some scientists hypothesize that the leatherback might have some capacity to generate its own body heat, although most reptiles are ectothermic and are thought not to be able to do so.[2]
Leatherbacks are also the reptile world's deepest-divers. Individuals have been discovered to be capable of descending to depths deeper than 1,200 meters.
The leatherback turtle is a species with a cosmopolitan global range. Of all the extant sea turtle species, ''D, coriacea'' has the widest distribution, reaching as far north as Alaska and Norway and as far south as the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and the southernmost tip of New Zealand. The leatherback is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans, and its range has been known to extend well into the Arctic Circle.[3] Globally, there are three major, genetically-distinct populations. The Atlantic ''Dermochelys'' population is separate from the ones in the Eastern and Western Pacific, which are also distinct from each other.
Vagrants have been captured in Bering Strait and Barents Sea near Murmansk.
In the summer months, Atlantic leatherback turtles are most common from the Gulf of Maine in the north to the coast of central Florida in the south. They have been sighted as far north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. The largest nesting populations exist in northeastern Costa Rica (Tortuguero), Trinidad and the Guyanas. Mayumba, in Gabon, Central Africa, is home to the largest population of nesting leatherback turtles on the continent. A few hundred nest annually on the eastern coast of Florida. Nesting occurs in May-July in Costa Rica, in June-August in other Atlantic locations.
There are two major leatherback feeding areas in the continental United States. One well-studied area are the waters just off the northwestern coast of the United States near the mouth of the Columbia River. The waters just off the river are excellent feeding grounds for the
, where they are believed to be foraging in the nutrient-rich waters of the North Pacific. The other American foraging area for the turtles is located in the state of California.[4]
Leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean have been determined to belong to two distinct populations. One population in known to nest on beaches in Indonesia while their foraging grounds are across the Pacific along the coast of Oregon in North America. The other population forages in the waters along the western coast of the South American continent while they nest in beaches on the Pacific side of Central America, specific nesting grounds being in Mexico and Costa Rica.
Pacific leatherback turtles are most often seen off the Hawaiian Islands, where they are known to congregate north of the archipelago.
In the Indian Ocean, they nest in Kwa Zulu-Natal, Sri Lanka, and Nicobar Islands, among other places.
Leatherback turtles can be found primarily in the open ocean. The turtles prefer deep water but are most often seen within sight of land. Feeding grounds have been determined to be closer to land, in waters barely offshore. Unusually for a reptile, leatherbacks can survive and actively swim in colder waters; individual turtles have been found in waters 4.5° Celsius.
Adult ''Dermochelys coriacea'' subsist on a diet almost-entirely composed of jellyfish. Due to its obligate feeding nature, it has been hypothesized that leatherback turtles play a role in the control of jellyfish populations.
Giant leatherback turtles travel each year from the Caribbean to the northern US, Canada, UK and Europe, following the Gulf Stream in order to eat the jellyfish found there.
Mating between leatherback turtles take place at sea. Leatherback males never leave the water once they enter it unlike females which crawl onto land to nest. Females are known to mate every two to three years. However, leatherbacks have been found to be capable of breeding and nesting annually. While the other species of sea turtles almost-always return to the same beaches they hatched from, female leatherback turtles have been found to be capable of switching to another beach within the same general region of their "home" beach. One female may lay as many as nine clutches in one breeding season. About nine days pass between nesting events. The average clutch size of this particular species is around 110 eggs per nest, 85% of which are viable.
After encountering a female (who possibly exudes a pheromone to signal her reproductive status) the leatherback male uses head movements, nuzzling, biting or flipper movements to determine her receptiveness. Marine turtles often face a difficult and sometimes even dangerous task when attempting to reproduce. The male has to mount the female from behind and latch on in order to be able to copulate, but sometimes their shells obstruct this process. Mating can also become dangerous when the male is so desperately overeager to find a mate that he stays underwater for too long, and after encountering the female, he must spend another hour with no air. Fertilization is internal, and multiple males usually mate with a single female. This may have evolved to insure against male infertility, and sperm depletion to allow females to select the highest quality sperm, and increase the genetic variation amongst offspring.
However, studies have shown that the process of polyandry in sea turtles does not provide the offspring with any special advantages.[5]
Cleavage of the cell begins within hours of fertilization, but development is suspended during the gastrulation period of movements and infoldings of embryonic cells, while the eggs are being laid. Development soon resumes, but the embryos remain extremely susceptible to movement-induced mortality in their nests until the membranes fully develop through the first 20-25 days of incubation, when the structural differentiation of body and organs (organogenesis) soon follows.
The nesting beach must be comprised of soft sand because their soft leatherback shells are easily damaged by hard rocks. The beach must also have a shallow approach angle from the sea. This is a source of vulnerability for the turtles because such beaches are easily eroded. Females excavate a nest above the high-tide line with their flippers. They then begin to lay their eggs, producing about 110 ova, 70 of which are large and fertile, the remaining 40 smaller and sterile. The female carefully back-fills the nest, making sure to disguise it from predators with a scattering of sand.
The eggs hatch in about 60-70 days. Like some other reptiles, the ambient temperature of the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings. The eggs hatch while still buried under the sand. After nightfall, the hatchlings dig their way to the surface and make their way to the sea. Once they reach the ocean they are generally not seen again until maturity. Very few survive this mysterious period to become adults. Most are eaten by birds or other reptiles before they have a chance to reach the water. When the lights of a city are visible from a hatching site, leatherback hatchlings are attracted to the lights and away from the sea. Many of these hatchlings are struck by traffic or otherwise perish.
Atlantic leatherback sea turtles nest between February and July from Georgia in the United States to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and to Suriname and Guyana. With nearly 30,000 turtles visiting its beaches each year to April, Mayumba National Park is the most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in Africa, and possibly worldwide. Pacific leatherbacks nested on beaches from Malaysia to Costa Rica until the last few years, but since 2001 numbers have dropped dramatically, and Pacific leatherbacks may be facing extinction. They are under the listing for endangered animals.
[6]
It is the only extant species in the genus '''Dermochelys''' and the family 'Dermochelyidae'.
Leatherback turtles have slightly fewer human-related threats than the other sea turtle species. As a pelagic species, ''D. coriacea'' individuals are occasionally caught as by-catch by commercial fishing vessels. As they are the largest sea turtles alive today, turtle excluder devices can be ineffective with adult leatherbacks of a particular size range. Pollution, both chemical and physical, can also be fatal to leatherback turtles. With their main diet consisting of jellyfish, many turtles die from malabsorption and intestinal blockage following the ingestion of balloons and plastic bags which resemble their prey.
In the United States the leatherback sea turtle has been classified as endangered across its range since 1970. It is also endangered in Canada. It is also listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). This makes it illegal to harm or kill the turtles. Mayumba National Park in Gabon, Central Africa was created to protect the most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in Africa, and quite possibly the world. More than 30,000 turtles come to nest on Mayumba's beaches between September and April each year.
Adult leatherback turtles are large animals that are not particularly vulnerable to natural predators. Eggs and hatchlings are most vulnerable to predation of all kinds. Birds, dogs and other opportunists are known to dig up nests and consume eggs. New hatchlings are also vulnerable on their journey from nest to sea. Once they enter the water they become prey to many new predators and very few survive to adulthood.
Human activity endangers leatherback turtles in many ways. Turtle eggs are harvested by people in Puerto Rico, the surrounding islands, and several African countries. In Malaysia, where the turtle is practically locally extinct, the eggs were considered a delicacy.[7][8]
Development of beaches can disturb or destroy the particular kind of habitat that leatherbacks need to nest, and the lights of development can cause hatchlings to move away from the sea rather than toward it. Human use of beaches can crush nests and hatchlings or bury eggs too deep for the hatchlings to emerge. Finally humans may disturb nesting females out of curiosity.
While adults are at sea their major threats are all from humans. Ingesting plastic, rubber, tar, oil, and other synthetic materials can kill an adult leatherback or severely injure it. Many have been injured by colliding with boats, especially in shallow water. The equipment associated with commercial fishing, including lines, nets, ropes, and cables can entangle adult turtles and cause them to drown. Though "Turtle Exclusion Devices" are mandated on nets, they often fail to allow an animal the size of an adult leatherback to escape. The US NOAA estimates that about 640 adult leatherback turtles are killed each year by commercial fishing enterprise. Industrial longline fishing for tuna, swordfish, sharks, and other species is the greatest threat to the survival of leatherback sea turtles, especially in the Pacific Ocean.
A more drastic measure that is being studied by the Malaysian Fisheries Department is cloning. In mid-2007, the Fisheries Department expressed a plan to clone leatherback turtles to replenish the country's rapidly-declining ''Dermochelys'' population. Some conservation biologists however, are skeptical of the proposed plan as cloning has been done only on mammals such as dogs, sheep, cats and cows, and uncertainties persist about cloned animals' health and life spans.[9] Leatherbacks used to nest in the thousands on many of Malaysia's beaches, including those at Terengganu.[10]
1. Species Fact Sheet: Leatherback Sea Turtle
2. WWF - Leatherback turtle
3. Occurrence of the Leathery Turtle in the Northern North Sea and off Western Norway, , J. F., Willgohs, Nature,
4. Saving the 'dinosaurs of the sea' Cassandra Profita
5. Polyandry in a marine turtle: Females make the best of a bad job, , Patricia L. M., Lee, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,
6. Oldest known sea turtle, , Ren, Hirayama, Nature,
7. Taste for leatherback eggs contributes to Malaysian turtle's demise Hamish Townsend
8. Leatherback Turtle: Threats, published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), retrieved 7 June 2007.
9. Malaysia mulls cloning rare turtles Julia Zappei
10. Experts meet to help save world's largest turtles
★ Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
★ Wood R.C., Johnson-Gove J., Gaffney E.S. & Maley K.F. (1996) - Evolution and phylogeny of leatherback turtles (Dermochelyidae), with descriptions of new fossil taxa. Chel. Cons. Biol., 2(2): 266-286, Lunenburg.
★ ''Chelonioidea''. The sea turtle superfamily.
★ ''Caretta caretta''. The loggerhead turtle.
★ ''Chelonia mydas''. The green turtle.
★ ''Eretmochelys imbricata''. The hawksbill turtle.
★ ''Lepidochelys kempii''. The Kemp's Ridley turtle.
★ ''Lepidochelys olivacea''. The olive ridley turtle.
★ ''Natator depressus''. The flatback turtle.
★ SWOT Report, volume 1 - Featuring the leatherback nesting beaches of the world along with the most up-to-date information on the global status of leatherback turtles.
★ The Turtles.org home page
★ Photos and information about leatherback turtles in Mayumba National Park, home to the highest density of nesting leatherback turtles in Africa, and possibly worldwide.
★ The Oceanic Resource Foundation
★ NOAA Office of Protected Resources
★ The Physics factbook
★ Leatherback Sea Turtle at CRESLI
★ Leatherback turtle at Animal Diversity Web
★ Parismina Turtle Commission
★ Kawana Campaign paper: Leatherback Turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, Nesting in French Guiana, 1978-1995 with more sources
★ Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project
★ A Freewebs site about leatherbacks.
★ Nova Scotia Leatherback Turtle Working Group
★ The Great Turtle Race, a conservation group that monitors Leatherbacks as the swim from Costa Rica, where they've just laid their eggs, back to their natural territory of the Galapagos Islands.
★ Tagging Of Pacific Predators, a contributor to The Great Turtle Race, this research group continues to tag and monitor Leatherbacks around the world, including the turtles from the race.
★ Video of a leatherback turtle laying her eggs Filmed in Tamarindo, Costa Rica
The 'leatherback sea turtle' ('''Dermochelys coriacea''') is the biggest of all living turtles. It is the only extant species in the genus '''Dermochelys''' and the family 'Dermochelyidae'.
Anatomy and morphology
Leatherback turtles follow the general sea turtle body plan of having a large, dorsoventrally flattened, round body with two pairs of appendages, a large head and a short tail. Like other sea turtles, the leatherback's flattened forelimbs are specially adapted for swimming in the open ocean. Claws are noticeably absent from both pair of flippers. As the last surviving member of its family, the leatherback turtle has several distinguishing characteristics that differentiate it from other sea turtles. Its most notable feature is that it lacks the bony carapace of the other extant sea turtles. Instead of scutes, the leatherback's carapace is covered by its thick, leathery skin with embedded miniscule bony plates. Seven distinct ridges arise from the carapace, running from the anterior-to-posterior margin of the turtle's back. The entire turtle's dorsal surface is colored dark grey to black with a sporadic scattering of white blotches and spots. In a show of countershading, the turtle's underside is lightly colored.[1]
''Dermochelys coriacea'' adults average at around one to two meters long and weigh from around 250 to 700 kilograms. The largest however was a little over three meters from head-to-tail and weighed over 900 kilograms. It is the world's fourth largest reptile, behind the larger crocodiles.
Physiology
The metabolic rate of the leatherback is about four times higher than one would expect for a reptile of its size; this, coupled with counter-current heat exchangers, the insulation provided by its oily flesh and large body size, allow it to maintain a body temperature as much as 18 °C (64.4 °F) above that of the surrounding water. Some scientists hypothesize that the leatherback might have some capacity to generate its own body heat, although most reptiles are ectothermic and are thought not to be able to do so.[2]
Leatherbacks are also the reptile world's deepest-divers. Individuals have been discovered to be capable of descending to depths deeper than 1,200 meters.
Distribution
The leatherback turtle is a species with a cosmopolitan global range. Of all the extant sea turtle species, ''D, coriacea'' has the widest distribution, reaching as far north as Alaska and Norway and as far south as the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and the southernmost tip of New Zealand. The leatherback is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans, and its range has been known to extend well into the Arctic Circle.[3] Globally, there are three major, genetically-distinct populations. The Atlantic ''Dermochelys'' population is separate from the ones in the Eastern and Western Pacific, which are also distinct from each other.
Vagrants have been captured in Bering Strait and Barents Sea near Murmansk.
Atlantic subpopulation
In the summer months, Atlantic leatherback turtles are most common from the Gulf of Maine in the north to the coast of central Florida in the south. They have been sighted as far north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. The largest nesting populations exist in northeastern Costa Rica (Tortuguero), Trinidad and the Guyanas. Mayumba, in Gabon, Central Africa, is home to the largest population of nesting leatherback turtles on the continent. A few hundred nest annually on the eastern coast of Florida. Nesting occurs in May-July in Costa Rica, in June-August in other Atlantic locations.
There are two major leatherback feeding areas in the continental United States. One well-studied area are the waters just off the northwestern coast of the United States near the mouth of the Columbia River. The waters just off the river are excellent feeding grounds for the
, where they are believed to be foraging in the nutrient-rich waters of the North Pacific. The other American foraging area for the turtles is located in the state of California.[4]
Pacific subpopulation
Leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean have been determined to belong to two distinct populations. One population in known to nest on beaches in Indonesia while their foraging grounds are across the Pacific along the coast of Oregon in North America. The other population forages in the waters along the western coast of the South American continent while they nest in beaches on the Pacific side of Central America, specific nesting grounds being in Mexico and Costa Rica.
Pacific leatherback turtles are most often seen off the Hawaiian Islands, where they are known to congregate north of the archipelago.
In the Indian Ocean, they nest in Kwa Zulu-Natal, Sri Lanka, and Nicobar Islands, among other places.
Ecology and life history
Habitat
Leatherback turtles can be found primarily in the open ocean. The turtles prefer deep water but are most often seen within sight of land. Feeding grounds have been determined to be closer to land, in waters barely offshore. Unusually for a reptile, leatherbacks can survive and actively swim in colder waters; individual turtles have been found in waters 4.5° Celsius.
Trophic ecology
Adult ''Dermochelys coriacea'' subsist on a diet almost-entirely composed of jellyfish. Due to its obligate feeding nature, it has been hypothesized that leatherback turtles play a role in the control of jellyfish populations.
Giant leatherback turtles travel each year from the Caribbean to the northern US, Canada, UK and Europe, following the Gulf Stream in order to eat the jellyfish found there.
Life history
Mating between leatherback turtles take place at sea. Leatherback males never leave the water once they enter it unlike females which crawl onto land to nest. Females are known to mate every two to three years. However, leatherbacks have been found to be capable of breeding and nesting annually. While the other species of sea turtles almost-always return to the same beaches they hatched from, female leatherback turtles have been found to be capable of switching to another beach within the same general region of their "home" beach. One female may lay as many as nine clutches in one breeding season. About nine days pass between nesting events. The average clutch size of this particular species is around 110 eggs per nest, 85% of which are viable.
After encountering a female (who possibly exudes a pheromone to signal her reproductive status) the leatherback male uses head movements, nuzzling, biting or flipper movements to determine her receptiveness. Marine turtles often face a difficult and sometimes even dangerous task when attempting to reproduce. The male has to mount the female from behind and latch on in order to be able to copulate, but sometimes their shells obstruct this process. Mating can also become dangerous when the male is so desperately overeager to find a mate that he stays underwater for too long, and after encountering the female, he must spend another hour with no air. Fertilization is internal, and multiple males usually mate with a single female. This may have evolved to insure against male infertility, and sperm depletion to allow females to select the highest quality sperm, and increase the genetic variation amongst offspring.
However, studies have shown that the process of polyandry in sea turtles does not provide the offspring with any special advantages.[5]
Cleavage of the cell begins within hours of fertilization, but development is suspended during the gastrulation period of movements and infoldings of embryonic cells, while the eggs are being laid. Development soon resumes, but the embryos remain extremely susceptible to movement-induced mortality in their nests until the membranes fully develop through the first 20-25 days of incubation, when the structural differentiation of body and organs (organogenesis) soon follows.
The nesting beach must be comprised of soft sand because their soft leatherback shells are easily damaged by hard rocks. The beach must also have a shallow approach angle from the sea. This is a source of vulnerability for the turtles because such beaches are easily eroded. Females excavate a nest above the high-tide line with their flippers. They then begin to lay their eggs, producing about 110 ova, 70 of which are large and fertile, the remaining 40 smaller and sterile. The female carefully back-fills the nest, making sure to disguise it from predators with a scattering of sand.
The eggs hatch in about 60-70 days. Like some other reptiles, the ambient temperature of the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings. The eggs hatch while still buried under the sand. After nightfall, the hatchlings dig their way to the surface and make their way to the sea. Once they reach the ocean they are generally not seen again until maturity. Very few survive this mysterious period to become adults. Most are eaten by birds or other reptiles before they have a chance to reach the water. When the lights of a city are visible from a hatching site, leatherback hatchlings are attracted to the lights and away from the sea. Many of these hatchlings are struck by traffic or otherwise perish.
Atlantic leatherback sea turtles nest between February and July from Georgia in the United States to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and to Suriname and Guyana. With nearly 30,000 turtles visiting its beaches each year to April, Mayumba National Park is the most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in Africa, and possibly worldwide. Pacific leatherbacks nested on beaches from Malaysia to Costa Rica until the last few years, but since 2001 numbers have dropped dramatically, and Pacific leatherbacks may be facing extinction. They are under the listing for endangered animals.
Evolutionary history
[6]
Etymology and Taxonomic history
It is the only extant species in the genus '''Dermochelys''' and the family 'Dermochelyidae'.
Conservation
Leatherback turtles have slightly fewer human-related threats than the other sea turtle species. As a pelagic species, ''D. coriacea'' individuals are occasionally caught as by-catch by commercial fishing vessels. As they are the largest sea turtles alive today, turtle excluder devices can be ineffective with adult leatherbacks of a particular size range. Pollution, both chemical and physical, can also be fatal to leatherback turtles. With their main diet consisting of jellyfish, many turtles die from malabsorption and intestinal blockage following the ingestion of balloons and plastic bags which resemble their prey.
In the United States the leatherback sea turtle has been classified as endangered across its range since 1970. It is also endangered in Canada. It is also listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). This makes it illegal to harm or kill the turtles. Mayumba National Park in Gabon, Central Africa was created to protect the most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in Africa, and quite possibly the world. More than 30,000 turtles come to nest on Mayumba's beaches between September and April each year.
Adult leatherback turtles are large animals that are not particularly vulnerable to natural predators. Eggs and hatchlings are most vulnerable to predation of all kinds. Birds, dogs and other opportunists are known to dig up nests and consume eggs. New hatchlings are also vulnerable on their journey from nest to sea. Once they enter the water they become prey to many new predators and very few survive to adulthood.
Human activity endangers leatherback turtles in many ways. Turtle eggs are harvested by people in Puerto Rico, the surrounding islands, and several African countries. In Malaysia, where the turtle is practically locally extinct, the eggs were considered a delicacy.[7][8]
Development of beaches can disturb or destroy the particular kind of habitat that leatherbacks need to nest, and the lights of development can cause hatchlings to move away from the sea rather than toward it. Human use of beaches can crush nests and hatchlings or bury eggs too deep for the hatchlings to emerge. Finally humans may disturb nesting females out of curiosity.
While adults are at sea their major threats are all from humans. Ingesting plastic, rubber, tar, oil, and other synthetic materials can kill an adult leatherback or severely injure it. Many have been injured by colliding with boats, especially in shallow water. The equipment associated with commercial fishing, including lines, nets, ropes, and cables can entangle adult turtles and cause them to drown. Though "Turtle Exclusion Devices" are mandated on nets, they often fail to allow an animal the size of an adult leatherback to escape. The US NOAA estimates that about 640 adult leatherback turtles are killed each year by commercial fishing enterprise. Industrial longline fishing for tuna, swordfish, sharks, and other species is the greatest threat to the survival of leatherback sea turtles, especially in the Pacific Ocean.
A more drastic measure that is being studied by the Malaysian Fisheries Department is cloning. In mid-2007, the Fisheries Department expressed a plan to clone leatherback turtles to replenish the country's rapidly-declining ''Dermochelys'' population. Some conservation biologists however, are skeptical of the proposed plan as cloning has been done only on mammals such as dogs, sheep, cats and cows, and uncertainties persist about cloned animals' health and life spans.[9] Leatherbacks used to nest in the thousands on many of Malaysia's beaches, including those at Terengganu.[10]
References
1. Species Fact Sheet: Leatherback Sea Turtle
2. WWF - Leatherback turtle
3. Occurrence of the Leathery Turtle in the Northern North Sea and off Western Norway, , J. F., Willgohs, Nature,
4. Saving the 'dinosaurs of the sea' Cassandra Profita
5. Polyandry in a marine turtle: Females make the best of a bad job, , Patricia L. M., Lee, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,
6. Oldest known sea turtle, , Ren, Hirayama, Nature,
7. Taste for leatherback eggs contributes to Malaysian turtle's demise Hamish Townsend
8. Leatherback Turtle: Threats, published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), retrieved 7 June 2007.
9. Malaysia mulls cloning rare turtles Julia Zappei
10. Experts meet to help save world's largest turtles
Bibliography
★ Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
★ Wood R.C., Johnson-Gove J., Gaffney E.S. & Maley K.F. (1996) - Evolution and phylogeny of leatherback turtles (Dermochelyidae), with descriptions of new fossil taxa. Chel. Cons. Biol., 2(2): 266-286, Lunenburg.
See also
★ ''Chelonioidea''. The sea turtle superfamily.
★ ''Caretta caretta''. The loggerhead turtle.
★ ''Chelonia mydas''. The green turtle.
★ ''Eretmochelys imbricata''. The hawksbill turtle.
★ ''Lepidochelys kempii''. The Kemp's Ridley turtle.
★ ''Lepidochelys olivacea''. The olive ridley turtle.
★ ''Natator depressus''. The flatback turtle.
External links
★ SWOT Report, volume 1 - Featuring the leatherback nesting beaches of the world along with the most up-to-date information on the global status of leatherback turtles.
★ The Turtles.org home page
★ Photos and information about leatherback turtles in Mayumba National Park, home to the highest density of nesting leatherback turtles in Africa, and possibly worldwide.
★ The Oceanic Resource Foundation
★ NOAA Office of Protected Resources
★ The Physics factbook
★ Leatherback Sea Turtle at CRESLI
★ Leatherback turtle at Animal Diversity Web
★ Parismina Turtle Commission
★ Kawana Campaign paper: Leatherback Turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, Nesting in French Guiana, 1978-1995 with more sources
★ Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project
★ A Freewebs site about leatherbacks.
★ Nova Scotia Leatherback Turtle Working Group
★ The Great Turtle Race, a conservation group that monitors Leatherbacks as the swim from Costa Rica, where they've just laid their eggs, back to their natural territory of the Galapagos Islands.
★ Tagging Of Pacific Predators, a contributor to The Great Turtle Race, this research group continues to tag and monitor Leatherbacks around the world, including the turtles from the race.
★ Video of a leatherback turtle laying her eggs Filmed in Tamarindo, Costa Rica
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