green sea turtle = )

By: Daisy G.

Description• The green sea turtle grows to a

maximum size of about 4 feet and a weight of 440 pounds. It and single-clawed flippers. Color is variable.

• Hatchlings generally have a black carapace, white plastron has a heart-shaped shell, small head,, and white margins on the shell and limbs. The adult carapace is smooth, keel less, and light to dark brown with dark mottling; the plastron is whitish to light yellow.

• Adult heads are light brown with yellow markings. Identifying characteristics include four pairs of costal scutes, none of which borders the nuchal scute, and only one pair of prefrontal scales between the eyes. on sea grasses and marine algae.

Natural Habitat

• Green turtles are generally found in fairly shallow waters inside reefs, bays, and inlets.

• The turtles are attracted to lagoons and shoals with an abundance of marine grass and algae.

• Open beaches with a sloping platform and minimal disturbance are required for nesting.

• Green turtles apparently have a strong nesting site fidelity and often make long distance migrations between feeding grounds and nesting beaches.

Eggs• Every two to four years,

at night, the females crawl on the beach and start to dig a hole to lay there eggs in.

• There eggs are almost perfectly circular and they lay about 100 at a time.

• These eggs hatch in about two months.

• After the eggs hatch they spend a year at sea called a lost year.

Extra Facts • The Green Turtle is an

endangered species.• The places where they eat and

nest are vulnerable to humans because they are well known and unchanging.

• That is why despite being endangered they are killed for there meat, eggs, and other turtle products.

• Propellers accident, fishnet (caused drowning), and destruction of nesting also reduces there numbers.

Interesting Facts

• The Green Sea Turtle species is over 150 million years old.

• Their species was there when the dinosaurs went extinct.

• The young turtles are carnivores, but when they become adults they become herbivores.