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✎ Camila Espinosa

✎ Camila Espinosa

✎ Diego Aguilera

Green turtle
Chelonia mydasPacific region

  • Generalities
  • Morpho-functionality
  • Lifecycle
  • Distribution

RECORRIDO VIRTUAL POR LA BIODIVERSIDAD DE COLOMBIA
Museo de Historia Natural
Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Green turtle
Chelonia mydas

One of the longest living animals, it lives up to 80 years. They measure up to 1.5 m in length. It is an omnivorous turtle with a greater preference to be herbivorous, presenting seasonal variations in the diet depending on the availability of food. Juveniles have a carnivorous diet feeding on mollusks, marine arthropods, sponges and jellyfish; adults mainly consume red, green, brown algae and mangrove vegetation. When swimming, they normally do not exceed 50 meters in depth.

Conservation status

Extinct

Extinct in the Wild

Critically Endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Near Threatened

Least Concern

Not Evaluated

Data Deficient

Morpho-functionality

Stomach

The stomach is formed by two gastric portions separated by a constriction, this characteristic is closely related to the diet, since their diet changes considerably throughout their life cycle, the young are carnivorous and as they grow they become herbivorous.

Legs

Their legs are shaped like a paddle, this helps them to move in the water.

Mouth

They have a callus on their upper jaw that has a slightly denticulate edge which helps them catch their food.

Lifecycle

They reproduce every two years, they can nest two to five times per season with intervals of two weeks between egg layings. It seems to have great loyalty not only for the beaches, but also for the sector where they make the first nesting. In the Colombian Caribbean, the nesting season is from July to November. The laying of the eggs postures, as well as the hatching of the eggs occur at night. The incubation of the eggs ranges from 45 to 60 days. Re-nesting behavior may be due to females having difficulty building egg chambers in coarse, dry sand, thus digging multiple test holes, often more than one night, before laying eggs. Courtship and copulation take place near the nesting beaches. Mating lasts up to 6 hours. Sexual maturity in this species is reached between 19 - 30 years.

Green turtle

Distribution

Its distribution is circumglobal, mainly in tropical waters, in Colombia we can find it on the Pacific coasts and the Caribbean. It is a migratory species that feeds in shallow waters where there is submerged vegetation.

Distribution area