The Leatherback Sea Turtel

Taxonomy
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Dermochelyidae
Genus:	Dermochelys
Species:	Dermochelys Coriacea

Status:	Critically Endangered

Atlantic Leatherbacks are the largest living turtles in the world. Adults usually range from 137 to 178 cm in length and weigh 295 to 544 kg. Larger individuals are uncommon. This species has its throat lined with backward-pointing spines, an adaptation that enables it to feed extensively on jellyfish. Leatherbacks are primarily pelagic animals

Picture of a Leatherback Sea Turtle swimming in the sea

They travel great distances from their nesting beaches to their feeding grounds. Although Leatherbacks are most often found in tropical waters, they are distributed around the globe in temperate oceans, and even on edges of subarctic water. The Leatherback sea turtle travels further north than any other sea turtle. They live in Northern Atlantic waters as far north as Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Labrador. They also inhabit South Atlantic Waters, as far south as Argentina and South Africa. This turtle inhabits waters as far east as Britain and Norway.

The biggest ever recorded Leatherback turtle was a male stranded on a Welsh beach that reached 256 cm long and weighed 916 kg. A Leatherback was recorded to have descended to a maximum depth of 1,230 metres, which represents the deepest dive ever recorded for a reptile.

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