Your turtle animal shirt, your donation!
These beautiful creatures are unfortunately classified as an endangered species despite their importance to the marine ecosystem. Your donation goes to the Marine Conservation Institute. It focuses on protecting marine habitats and endangered species, including sea turtles.
Interesting facts about sea turtles
Cool Facts
- Sea turtles regularly surface to breathe, but they can sleep submerged for a staggering four to seven hours before catching their breath again. Meanwhile, they slow down their metabolism and heart rate to conserve oxygen. Up to nine minutes can pass between two heartbeats!
- They use the Earth's magnetic field, currents, and other cues to orient themselves and determine their travel routes.
- The leatherback turtle can dive to depths of up to 1000 meters, which is the record for that of its conspecifics.
- Only one in a thousand young animals reaches the adult age of 20 to 30 years.
- No matter how far away they are, female turtles always come back to the beach where they hatched.
- In the water, sea turtles are capable of speeds in excess of 25 km/h. As a rule, however, they swim comfortably at a speed of about one to ten km/h.
- Sea turtles have existed for around 225 million years and are considered to be the oldest living reptiles. They have survived shifting continents, ice ages, natural disasters and even the extinction of the dinosaurs.
habitat
Sea turtles live in tropical and subtropical seas worldwide, where the water temperature never falls below 20 degrees Celsius.
kind
There are seven known species of sea turtles.
lifespan
Depending on the species, they can live between 30 and 100 years.
Size
Aquatic turtles vary in size depending on the species.
- The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest sea turtle species. It can reach an impressive height of over 2 meters and weigh several hundred kilograms.
- The smallest sea turtle species is the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). It is relatively small compared to other sea turtles, reaching around 70-90 centimeters in length and around 40-60 kilograms in weight.