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  In flight

Turtles

Leatherback Sea Turtle

Dermochelys coriacea

• rare
• 10 km/h
• Vulnerable

Largest sea turtle alive, crossing entire oceans on jellyfish. Dives deeper than any other reptile, past 1,000 meters.

Population

Estimated 26,000-43,000 nesting females annually worldwide, down from an estimated 115,000 in 1980

Habitat

Open-ocean (pelagic) forager ranging from the surface to depths beyond 1,000-1,200 m; comes ashore (females only) solely to nest, on tropical and subtropical sandy beaches

Fun fact

Unlike other reptiles, the leatherback can hold a core body temperature up to ~18°C above the surrounding seawater through countercurrent heat exchange in its flippers, thick oil-rich insulating tissue, metabolic heat generation, and sheer body mass - letting it forage for jellyfish in near-freezing subarctic and Arctic-adjacent waters.

Range

The most widely distributed of all sea turtles - found throughout the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, from tropical nesting beaches (e.g. French Guiana, Costa Rica, U.S. Virgin Islands) to cold subarctic/temperate foraging waters off Norway, Alaska, and Newfoundland/Labrador

Diet

Carnivorous specialist feeder on jellyfish, siphonophores, salps/tunicates, and other soft-bodied gelatinous zooplankton; occasionally takes small crustaceans, fish, cephalopods, and sea urchins

Size

1.8 m

Lifespan

45 years