Curiosities of sea turtles
They inhabit our planet for many millions of years. It is believed that sea turtles were already found in the Jurassic period; More than 250 million years ago! If the species become wise over the years, then the sea turtles are wisdom itself made alive.
The largest sea turtle was the Archelon, 2,200 kilos, and inhabited America in the Upper Cretaceous period.
They are guided by the light of the surface and evade shadows and vegetation to avoid danger.
The sex of a sea turtle is determined by the temperature of the sand where its nest is: if it is warm, they will be females; If it's cold, they'll be males. If they are in a temperate environment, males and females will emerge in similar amounts.
They are incredible travelers and swimmers. They can swim for hours and hours without getting tired; and some species travel more than a thousand kilometers in a single day when they migrate.
LSea turtles are the fastest-moving reptiles, and can reach a speed of up to 35 kilometers / 21 miles per hour.
They cry, but it is not because of sadness. The sea turtles shed great tears and in this way they expel the excess salt caused by the ingestion of seawater through the eyes.
The shell of sea turtles is bony and consists of approximately 50 bones. The only exception is the leatherback turtle, which instead of a bone shell has layers of oily skin.
Sea turtles have the ability to slow down their metabolism. In this way, they can spend several months without eating if necessary, a feature that makes them true survivors.
They can dive more than 1,000 feet / 305 meters to get food. However, most of the time they choose to stay in the shallowest parts of the water.
Your sense of direction is magnificent. They can perceive the Earth's magnetic field and use it to establish geographic maps that allow them to migrate between their native beaches and their forage areas.
They can live up to about 70-80 years and reach their sexual maturity at approximately 50 years, depending on the species. A curious fact about the latter is that they reach sexual maturity not by age, but by size.
Sea turtles have lung breathing like us, and therefore must return to the surface to breathe. The interesting thing is that if they are sleeping or still under water, they can remain submerged for 8 hours.
That all turtles can put their heads in their carapace is a myth. All land turtles can, but not sea turtles. If you look closely, you will see that the marinas have eyelids that protect their eyes from sunlight. They are characterized to see very well in the water, but not in the earth. Also, they are color blind.
As in all species, males often compete, either for land or a female. To choose the winner, both turtles stretch the neck out from the shell to see which of the two gets to stretch it further.
The eggs are the size of a golf ball and soft touch. They put between 50 and 150 eggs at once. One of the greatest threats and predators of eggs is the human being.
As in most reptiles, mothers nest, leave and do not return to care for their young or feed them. Perhaps because of that protective mother's absence, the embryos of sea turtles have the peculiarity of synchronizing their hatching; that is, the moment when they will come out of their eggs; to avoid that the smaller turtles go out alone and be attacked by predators. In addition, they are excellent little brothers, since when the first offspring of sea turtles come out of their eggs, they help the others to free themselves and go out. Then they go in groups to avoid greater dangers.
Between the time the young enter the sea for the first time and return to the coast to feed, it can take up to a decade.
There are 8 species of sea turtles identified in the world. The one that more danger of extinction runs is the Kemp's ridley, which is the smallest of the species; It measures between 52 and 74 cm and weighs between 32 and 49 kg.
The Leatherback turtle is the largest of all the species of turtles that live in the water. It is also located as the fourth largest reptile in the world, surpassed only by three species of crocodiles.
Many species of sea turtles feed on jellyfish. If you have ever seen one, you may have noticed that they look like plastic bags floating in the sea; Which is why these are one of your worst enemies. It is very, very simple on our part to prevent them from dying because of this; so please, if we go to the beach, always take the precaution of picking up the bags that we carry or we see lying in the sand.
