#cheloniidae

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

green sea turtle?

Absolutely!

[herpsandbirds]

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas), family Cheloniidae, Durban, South Africa

ENDANGERED.

photograph by Johan Marais

[travelella]

Green Sea Turtle - The Port A Jetty, East Cotter Avenue, Port Aransas, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Chelonia mydas

Conservation status: Endangered (Population decreasing) 

Mass: 350 lbs (Adult) 

Class: Reptilia

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Cheloniidae

Genus: Chelonia; Brongniart, 1800

The green sea turtle, also known as the green turtle, black turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus Chelonia.

Green turtles are found worldwide primarily in subtropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and in the Mediterranean Sea. In U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, green turtles are found in inshore and nearshore waters from Texas to Maine, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: leatherback sea turtle

When most people think of big turtles they think of the giant tortoises of the Galapagos. Those may be the biggest land turtles., but in the water, life can get bigger. Much like how whales get bigger than any land mammal, the viscous and buoyant properties of water helping counteract gravity lets sea turtles get bigger than their land counterparts. This Wet Beast Wednesday I'm discussing the largest of all turtles, the mighty leatherback.

(Image: a leatherback sea turtle swimming just below the ocean's surface. It is a very large turtle with ridges running down its shell and its front and hind legs modified into large, paddle-like flippers. It is dark gray all over, with white spots. End ID)

Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) is not only the largest turtle, it's the heaviest of all living reptiles that aren't crocodilians. Adults average 1.8-2.2 m (6-7.2 ft) in length and 250-700 kg (550-1,540) lbs, with some variation in size based on region. Leatherbacks are the only living members of the family Dermochelyidae while the other 6 living species are all in the family Cheloniidae. This gives leatherbacks multiple anatomical differences from other sea turtles. One of these differences gives the leatherbacks their common names. Instead of a bony shell made of scutes, their shells are made of thick, oily and leathery skin that is embedded with small bony growths called osteoderms. The thick skin and osteoderms provide protection and allow pressure to distribute across the shell, making the shells highly resistant to being bitten trhough and highly resistant to cracking. Seven prominent ridges run down the length of the shell. The shape of the shell makes leatherbacks the most hydrodynamic of all sea turtles. The shell's shape and structure provides it with a high resistance to pressure, useful as leatherbacks dive deeper than any other sea turtle.

(Image: a leatherback sea turtle seen from the front with its mouth open. The head has a beak instead of teeth and the interior of the mouth is fleshy and pink. End ID)

Leatherback sea turtles are powerful swimmers. Their powerful front flipper provide propulsion while the rear flippers are used for steering. The flippers can grow up to 2.7 m (8.9 ft) long, making them the largest of all sea turtles both in overall size and in relation to body size. Those flippers make the leatherback the fastest non-bird reptile, able to reach 35.3 km/h (21.9 mph), though they usually swim much slower. Of all the reptiles to be the fastest, I would never have guessed it would be a turtle. Leatherback beaks are fragile and not suited for biting through anything but soft-bodied animals, so they swallow most of their food whole. The throat is lined with backwards-facing spines that prevent prey from swimming back up the throat. While leatherbacks have scaly hides like other reptiles, they are the only reptile whose scales do not contain the structural protein beta-keratin.

(Image: the mouth of a leatherback being held open to reveal the interior. It is pink and fleshy and lined with backwards-pointing spikes. End ID)

Unlike most (non-bird) reptiles, leatherbacks maintain a core body temperature higher than the surrounding environment. It was formerly believed that this endothermy was established through an increased metabolism, though more recent measurements have establised that leatherbacks do not have a metabolic rate much higher than would be expected for a turtle of their size. It is now thought that body heat is maintained through heavy muscle activity. Leatherbacks are almost always actively swimming and spend at little as 0.1% of their day resting. By constantly swimming, their muscles generate heat. This body heat is then retained through a countercurrent heat exchange system that warms blood before it reaches the core and a thick layer of fat, allowing leatherbacks to inhabit water much colder than any other sea turtle.

(Image: a leatherback sea turtle on the beach, presumably a mother laying eggs. Multiple children are watching it and an adult is roping off the area around it to keep it safe. End ID)

Leatherback sea turtles are found worldwide and have the largest range of any turtle. Thanks to their high body heat, leatherbacks can live in waters as far north as Alaska and as far south as Aotearoa/New Zealand. Scientists have observed three genetically distinct populations, one in the Atlantic ocean and one each in the east and west Pacific Ocean. In addition, there are two other proposed populations, one in the Indian Ocean that is understudied and one in the South China Sea that is nearing extinction. They spend most of their lives in the open ocean, hunting prey. The primary prey of the leatherback sea turtle is jellyfish and they have to eat a lot of them to maintain their size. Other food sources include siphonophores, salps and pyrosomes, small fish, small crustaceans, and seagrass and seaweed. Leatherbacks play an important role in their environments by keeping jellyfish populations under control. Excessive jellyfish can overfeed on the plankton population, removing food sources for small animals and killing larval fish. A lot of jellyfish follow diel vertical migration; moving to deep water during the day and shallow water at night. Leatherbacks are adapted to follow their food and are among the deepest diving of all air-breathing marine animals, having been observed diving over 1,000 m (3281 ft) deep. Only sperm whales and beaked whales are known to dive deeper. Their high body temperature and shell structure allows leatherbacks to survive the frigid temperature and immense pressure of the deep sea. Dives can last up to 70 minutes, though most last from 3 - 8 minutes.

(Image: a leatherback sea turtle underwater, aiming downwards. End ID)

Leatherbacks migrate vast distances between their cold feeding grounds and the warm, tropical waters where they mate. Females may release pheromones into the water to attract males. Once a male find a female, he will attempt to woo her through head and flipper movements, nuzzling, and biting. When the female accepts, the two mate while in the water and then depart. Females must haul out of the water and onto shore to lay their eggs. Like other sea turtles, they tend to return to the beach of their birth, though they may also choose nearby beaches. Their preferred beaches have soft sand and a low angle of entry that face deep water. They also prefer beaches that have forests or dunes on the edge. Females lay eggs at night to avoid predators and overheating, but they have poor night vision. Thus, they prefer the forests and dunes to give a clear distinction between the moonlit ocean and the darkness at the edge of the beach. That way they can find they way onto shore by following the shadows and back to sea by following the light. Eggs must be laid above the high tide line and are buried in the sand. Females will mate multiple times each mating season and can lay a new clutch of eggs for each mating. An average clutch has 110 eggs, half of which will hatch. Eggs hatch in 60-70 days and the temperature of the sand around them determines whether the young will develop into males or females. In addition, eggs laid in colder sand usually develop into larger and more robust juveniles. Eggs hatch in groups during night and the hatchlings will follow moonlight reflected off of the water to find the ocean. During the trip to the water, many hatchlings will be lost to predation by opportunistic land predators and seabirds. Those who reach the water have a chance at survival, but are still preyed upon by squid, large fish, and sharks. Only a very few hatchlings will live long enough to reach adulthood.

(Image: a leatherback laying eggs. She has dug out a pit behind her and is releasing small, spherical, white eggs into it. End ID)

Leatherback sea turtles are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN, with some populations being more endangered than others. In particular, the east Pacific, west Pacific, southwest Indian, and southwest Atlantic subpopulations are listed as critically endangered, with the rest being either endangered or data deficient. Human activity is a major threat to the turtles. Leatherbacks can be caught as bycatch in nets or lines, leading to drowning and they are too large for some turtle safety mechanisms (like escape hatches on nets) to work. Pollution is also a major problem as floating plastic bags can be mistaken for jellyfish and swallowed. These bags can then obstruct the digestive system, ultimately killing the turtle. Another major problem is light pollution. Because hatchlings follow the brightest lights to reach the ocean, they can end up following artificial light instead of moonlight and end up moving away from the ocean instead of toward it. While adults are rarely caught for food, eggs are heavily harvested in southeast Asia and the Caribbean, where they are seen as delicacies or medicinal. It has been suggested that the population collapse in the South China Sea is largely due to overharvesting eggs for use in cuisine. Multiple countries around the world have given the turtles legal protection and local government and private agencies are aiding in turtle conservation through methods like helping juveniles reach the sea, artificial incubation of eggs, and raising awareness through ecotourism.

(Image: a hatchling leatherback. It is a miniature version of an adult and is climbing over other eggs, many of which are in the process of hatching. End ID)

[curiouscatalog]

Scary kitties!

Poe, Edgar Allan, and Alan James Robinson. The Black Cat. [Deluxe ed.]. S.l: Cheloniidae Press, 1984. 

PS2613 .A1 1984

[laylanatorseventeen]

OK, so exactly noone asked for this but I have been reading a LOT of bioshock fanfiction lately and I think there are some real gems on ao3 that I’d like to bring attention to. So here they are, mixed with some more obviously popular ones---

Bioshock fic recs GO!!!!

ONE SHOTS--

--Found Is Lost and Lost Is Found by thewickedkat-- “What if there had been a Little Sister who hadn’t wanted to be rescued?” REALLY GOOD, but heed the trigger warnings in the tags!!!

--results, not causes by cheloniidae “Diane doesn’t need a pretty face to fight in the war.”

--they shake the mountains when they dance by coricomile-- “Around her, the splicers scream.”

--Just Put (Me) To Work by rataplani-- “A tribute to the nameless protagonists of the Protector Trials.”

--Chasing Shadows by cloudeme--  “ She is the first Big Sister, and will probably be the last. She knows she's different, but she doesn't care. She does her job... and hates.”

MULTICHAPTER--

-hey mister, don’t I know you? by presidenthomewrecker -- COMPLETE-- the one where Anna Culpepper runs Fort Frolic when you come through!!! a really great story that I really enjoyed. this author in general is worth checking out, they’ve written more than one awesome fic!!

-The Closing of Watchful Eyes by FOzziliZ3d-- COMPLETE--  “In which Mark Meltzer is saved by Subject Delta in Dionysus Park.”

-lay her i’ th’ earth by poppywine-- COMPLETE-- “ And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil—By telling the truth. Tell truth and shame the devil.”  Jasmine Jolene haunts Ryan’s bitch ass and it’s wonderful. 

-Watch Over Me by cakeisatruth-- COMPLETE-- “ Little Sisters can be cured in a matter of seconds, but it takes far longer for one to overcome everything she's been brainwashed to believe.” A really good fic from the perspective of a recovering Little Sister!! I especially love this fic. 

-Bei Mir Bist Du Sheon by poppywine-- WIP--  “ Brigid Tenenbaum has put the worst of Rapture behind her. That's the good news. The bad news is that a part of it is now standing on her porch.” As stated, this fic is still in progress, but the writing is wonderful, and I’m really excited to see where it goes!!

-With Friends Like These.... by gummysharksupremacy --WIP--- this one is actually about remorseful!Bad End Jack which I found intriguing from the start!! Basically he wakes up after the events of the game and is trying to make his way out of Rapture. Has some Infinite/BAS elements but I havent played either of those and it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the fic. Honestly can be enjoyed as a standalone and is a really awesome fic!!

-Atonement for Bygone Sins by foorocks10-- WIP-- “Delta wakes in the ashes of failure. In the ashes of Rapture.Babylon has fallen. And yet Sophia Lamb seeks to build something greater and more terrible from Rapture's ashes.” I actually just discovered this one the other day!! 

-Here Comes the Sun by Riddle_of_the_sphinx --WIP-- “There are others I must help before this city drowns..... or, basically Delta decides that he’s going to save as many people as he can so they can see the sun.” This fic actually had me laughing out loud, Delta has such a sassy inner commentary. I’m excited to see where this one goes, as well!!

-There Is No Rapture by necroticboop-- WIP-- this fic is basically a fleshing out of Brigid Tenenbaum’s whole backstory and it is SOOOO GOOD omg. If you like Brigid please read this story and give the author some feedback because it is SO. GOOD.

-Underwater Eden by jadrea-- WIP-- “It is much to his surprise that Augustus Sinclair finds he's alive.” This one’s got MAPS and stuff like those really good fantasy books from middle school. Promising, I must say, LOL. 

-The Prodigal Son by malice-and-macarons-- WIP--”Atlas wakes up.Death, he thinks, would have been kinder.” I think this one is actually pretty popular amongst the Bioshock fanbase (small as it may be) but just in case you havent seen it, here it is!! 

Final note: I know we all love the instant gratification of already completed fic, and don’t like waiting for updates (I know, me too!) but I encourage anyone looking for something to read to give the WIP’s a try, and leave nice comments for the authors if you enjoyed the story! It’s hard to write when you feel like noone cares. If you want content, you have to validate the content creators!! 

All the fics on this list are awesome, and thanks to all the creators for producing and sharing these stories!!

[crayonnthief]

🐢turtlesona? Idk but I love them 🐢

(Cheloniidae sea turtle (modern sea turtle))

The turtles name is Leilani, but she’s called lee ^^

The young girls name is Alani

[She was inspired by her own name, when naming her friend. ]

Alani means : orange tree

Leilani means : heavenly garland of flowers

(Both of Hawaiian origin)

This took too long. Most of the coral is behind them *screaming*

[Sorry they are blurry, click on them to get the clear version]

[brooklynislandgirl]

Hey Y’all. It’s ya cheloniidae, Turtle. Tomorrow is the first Staff day of school and I have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to shower, get dressed, and be off to our annual breakfast {ew}, then it’s training, a librarian ‘professional learning community’ meeting, then checking in at the school: getting my radio, my emergency folder, substitute folder {which I don’t really need} and finding out if I need to come in on Friday. Lastly, the rest of the day will be spent putting everything out that got put up at the end of last year. Which is to say, I may be scarce the next couple days, and starting next week I’ll likely not be around on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Wednesday mornings. Then at the end of the month, college football season starts {Hook ‘Em Horns and Roll Tide} so my Saturdays will have solid plans. I’ll likely be radio-silent for a majority of the week which may not be unusual but that’s because I’m here, writing furiously to try and get replies and things out. You can leave me dms though I am much easier to find on discord {ask if you don’t have it}. That being said, I love y’all and I’ll be here as much as I can. ~your adoring Turtle

[squegbeg]

no no “and scene”

Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles,[3] are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, and olive ridley sea turtles.[4] All six of the sea turtle species present in US waters (all of those listed above except the flatback) are listed as endangered and/or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.[5] The seventh sea turtle species is the flatback, which exists in the waters of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.[5] Sea turtles can be separated into the categories of hard-shelled (cheloniid) and leathery-shelled (dermochelyid).[6] There is only one dermochelyid species which is the leatherback sea turtle.[6]

For each of the seven types of sea turtles, females and males are the same size; there is no sexual dimorphism.[7]

In general, sea turtles have a more fusiform body plan than their terrestrial or freshwater counterparts. This tapering at both ends reduces volume and means that sea turtles cannot retract their head and limbs into their shells for protection, unlike many other turtles and tortoises.[8] However, the streamlined body plan reduces friction and drag in the water and allows sea turtles to swim more easily and swiftly.

The leatherback sea turtle is the largest sea turtle, measuring 2–3 m (6–9 ft) in length, 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) in width, and weighing up to 700 kg (1500 lb). Other sea turtle species are smaller, being mostly 60–120 cm (2–4 ft) long and proportionally narrower.[9]

The skulls of sea turtles have cheek regions that are enclosed in bone.[10][11] Although this condition appears to resemble that found in the earliest known fossil reptiles (anapsids), it is possible it is a more recently evolved trait in sea turtles, placing them outside the anapsids.

Sea turtles, along with other turtles and tortoises, are part of the order Testudines. All species except the leatherback sea turtle are in the family Cheloniidae. The superfamily name Chelonioidea and family name Cheloniidae are based on the Ancient Greek word for tortoise: χελώνη (khelone).[13] The leatherback sea turtle is the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae.

Fossil evidence of marine turtles goes back to the Late Jurassic (150 million years ago) with genera such as Plesiochelys, from Europe. In Africa, the first marine turtle is Angolachelys, from the Turonian of Angola.[14] A lineage of unrelated marine testudines, the pleurodire (side-necked) bothremydids, also survived well into the Cenozoic. Other pleurodires are also thought to have lived at sea, such as Araripemys[15] and extinct pelomedusids.[16] Modern sea turtles are not descended from more than one of the groups of sea-going turtles that have existed in the past; they instead constitute a single radiation that became distinct from all other turtles at least 110 million years ago.[17][18][19] Their closest extant relatives are in fact the snapping turtles (Chelydridae), musk turtles (Kinosternidae), and hickatee (Dermatemyidae) of the Americas, which alongside the sea turtles constitute the clade Americhelydia.[20]

The oldest possible representative of the lineage (Panchelonioidea) leading to modern sea turtles was possibly Desmatochelys padillaifrom the Early Cretaceous. Desmatochelys was a protostegid, a lineage that would later give rise to some very large species but went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Presently thought to be outside the crown group that contains modern sea turtles (Chelonioidea), the exact relationships of protostegids to modern sea turtles are still debated due to their primitive morphology; they may be the sister group to the Chelonoidea, or an unrelated turtle lineage that convergently evolved similar adaptations.[21][22] The earliest "true" sea turtle that is known from fossils is Nichollsemys from the Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Canada. In 2022, the giant fossil species Leviathanochelys was described from Spain. This species inhabited the oceans covering Europe in the Late Cretaceous and rivaled the concurrent giant protostegids such as Archelon and Protostega as one of the largest turtles to ever exist. Unlike the protostegids, which have an uncertain relationship to modern sea turtles, Leviathanochelys is thought to be a true sea turtle of the superfamily Chelonioidea.[23]

Sea turtles' limbs and brains have evolved to adapt to their diets. Their limbs originally evolved for locomotion, but more recently evolved to aid them in feeding. They use their limbs to hold, swipe, and forage their food. This helps them eat more efficiently.[24][25]

PSA

avoid conforming to traditional gender norms by avoiding this common palette:

try using these palettes instead!!

[overjademountain]

Mudwings: Gruidae Rainwings: Callitrichidae Icewings: Cervidae Skywings: Falconidae Sandwings: Iguanidae Nightwings: Megadermatidae Seawings: Cheloniidae

[anexceptionallysimpletheory]

Word of the Day

loggerhead

noun 

1 

(also loggerhead turtle) 

a reddish-brown turtle with a very large head, occurring chiefly in warm seas. Caretta caretta, family Cheloniidae.

2 

(also loggerhead shrike) 

a widespread North American shrike, having mainly gray plumage with a black eyestripe, wings, and tail. Lanius ludovicianus, family Laniidae.

3 

archaic 

a foolish person. 

PHRASES 

at loggerheads 

in stubborn dispute or disagreement: council was at loggerheads with the government over the grant allocation. 

[perhaps a use of loggerhead in the late 17th-century sense ‘long-handled iron instrument for heating liquids and tar’ (when wielded as a weapon).]

ORIGIN 

late 16th century (in loggerhead (sense 3)): from dialect logger ‘block of wood for hobbling a horse’ + head.

[rbolick]

Books On Books Collection - Alan Robinson

A Fowl Alphabet (1986) A Fowl Alphabet (1986) Alan James Robinson (etchings), Suzanne Moore (calligraphy) Casebound. Marbled paper over boards. Doublures and flyleaves. H218 x W145 mm. 26 Folios untrimmed at head. Four-page prospectus loose. Acquired from Bromers Bookseller, 16 August 2022. Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with permission of the artists. Under his Cheloniidae Press…

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

As musician Fergie once said “Big girls don’t cry...especially if they’re loggerhead sea turtles.” These marine turtles may appear to be crying, but like all sea turtles, they’re actually regulating the amount of salt in their bodies by expelling it through their eyes.

(Image: A loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) discharging excess salt by Itaru Takaku)

If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a ko-fi!

[animalids]

Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Photo by Clare James

[wonder-rooms]

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydus) & Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apalone spinifera), Dictionnaire Universel D'histoire Naturelle (1892) - Charles Dessalines D’Orbigny

[jimmyillust]

Sea Turtle