Sea Turtles & Reptiles
Leatherback Sea Turtle
Dermochelys coriacea
Also known as
Leatherback, leathery turtle
Distribution
Global oceans; tropical to cold temperate waters
Ecosystem/Habitat
Coastal to open ocean; deep diver
Feeding Habits
Omnivore (mostly feed on jellyfish)
Conservation Status
Endangered
Taxonomy
Order Chelonii (turtles & tortoises); Family Dermochelyidae (leatherback sea turtles)
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Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google+Leatherback sea turtles have been swimming around the world’s oceans for more than 90 million years. They are the largest living turtle in the world, growing to more than two meters long and weighing 900 kilograms. Their preferred food is jellyfish, but because they are not very nutritious, each turtle needs to consume enough jellyfish to match its own body weight every day! To help them capture and eat these soft-bodied animals, they have a sharply pointed cusp at the end of their snout for piercing, and backward-pointing spines all the way down their throat to help swallow their slippery prey.
- American Lobster
- American Plaice
- Arctic Char
- Atlantic Cod
- Atlantic Herring
- Atlantic Mackerel
- Atlantic Puffin
- Atlantic Walrus
- Atlantic Wolffish
- Basking shark
- Beluga Whale
- Blue Shark
- Bowhead Whale
- Bubblegum Coral
- Canary Rockfish
- Capelin
- Chinook Salmon
- Dungeness Crab
- Eulachon
- Fin Whale
- Fjords
- Giant Pacific Octopus
- Great White Shark
- Green Sea Turtle
- Greenland Halibut/Turbot
- Greenland Shark
- Humboldt Squid
- Humpback Whale
- Kelp Forests
- Leatherback Sea Turtle
- Lingcod
- Lion's Mane Jellyfish
- Loggerhead Sea Turtle
- Lophelia Coral
- Narwhal
- North Atlantic Right Whale
- Northern Gannet
- Northern Shrimp
- Orca
- Pacific Herring
- Pilot Whale
- Polar Bear
- Pom-Pom Anemones
- Redfish (Acadian & Deepwater)
- Sea Otter
- Sea Pens
- Sea Strawberry
- Seamounts
- Snow crab
- Sockeye Salmon
- Spiny Dogfish
- Thick-billed Murres
- Thorny Skate
- Tufted Puffin
- Yelloweye Rockfish