Sea Turtles - Serine Being

What comes to your mind when u first hear the word ‘turtle’? A hard calcareous shell right? Unlike as shown in cartoons, turtles can’t just remove their shells, keep them aside & move away. Its an integral part of their body, in the same way as our hair are ..we can’t just remove them & keep them aside(unless it’s a wig).

Early records of can be dates back from 260 million years ago. A creature named Eunotosaurus africanus resided in the swamps of southern Africa in the late Middle Permian. It did not have what can be called as shells but rather a thickening of ribs that spread from the lower & upper abdomen. Scientist say that it was mainly used for its underground burrowing activities. It acts as a parareptile & also acts as a missing link between turtles & their prehistoric ancestors. Today ‘carapace’ is the term used for what the top of the turtles shell. 

A female turtle(about 20y/o) lays about a 1000 eggs. Though turtle is a sea creature it comes to lay eggs on the shore. It digs a shallow pitch, lays eggs, covers it with eggs & swims back to the waters. About 800 hatch, 400 make it to the water, 200progress towards adulthood & only 20 survive harsh condition & only 10 reach to the reproductive age( without human invasion). Exempting human invasion isn’t possible so let’s consider it & only 2 survive out of 1000 eggs.

Young turtles are very vulnerable. But as they progress towards adulthood approximately about a decade or so the only creatures they should worry about are larger shark species (bulls, tigers, great whites, killer whales etc.). They have a wide range of food. Some are omnivores (like loggerheads), herbivores (fully grown green turtles), gelantivores (leatherback), crab meat (Kemp’s ridley), echinoderms, pices, cnidarians (Olive ridley). Not much is known about turtle intelligence. They sometimes mistake plastic bags floating as jelly fishes & choke to dead due to them. Rethink the next time you use plastic. 

Younger turtles have a greater brain to body size ratio than adults. It has been difficult to fully understand their behavior. Its interesting how female turtles return back to the nesting ground from where they are to lay eggs. Here we can’t even remember what we had for dinner a night before (you just thought about it).There have been theories around that they use magnetic fields & chemical cues but this can’t be regarded as true. 

Turtles are among some of the animals that breathe with their butts. Their lungs are at the top of their shells. Most animals have the ability to expand & contract their thoracic cavity while breathing. But due to their rigid shells this isn’t possible for them. Thus they rely on muscles in their ribs to pump air in their mouths mostly. But sometimes they breathe out through the cloaca. It sometimes functions as the gills. Cloaca is also the excretory part . Now, think about it. A turtle has gills as well as lungs but it isn’t an amphibian. This means that they can’t stay underwater for long. They have to come up to breathe quite often, otherwise they drown. 

Turtles have been around for about 300 million years. Disappearance of them due to careless human activities can be very dangerous for the whole ecosystem. Their average life spans from 30 to 100 years. The oldest turtle. Some say that turtles can live upto 400-500 years of age. The oldest known turtle is held captive in Guangzhou aquarium in China is about 400 years old. The rainforests are an interesting place too. Since a few places are out of human reach we still don’t know if there are some freshwater turtles living peacefully in the water. There have been incidents recorded of humans finding giant turtles underwater but the authenticity of this information is as of yet unknown.

Baby turtles are adorable. Many people also have turtles as pets mainly due to them being low maintenance . Looking at the current scenario, due to extensive human activities turtles have become endangered. Extinction of sea turtles will be expensive & irreplaceable. Consumption of plastics, getting caught in fishing nests, losing habitat due to oil spills & regular human invasion on breeding grounds etc. are some of the major threats. Turtles share a symbiotic relationship with some algae. Touching the shell may weaken the algae & consequently the turtle too as a result of which it may die. 

Why do we need to protect them anyway?

Sea water washes off the minerals from the coasts. Turtles build dunes to lay eggs. These dunes protect the soil being washed/leached off. They are also a keystone species. They prevent excess blooming of jelly fish by predating on them. Turtle eggs are rich in minerals. The dunes derive minerals from these eggs thus enriching the soil. Our human conscience helps us to realize about our duties & urges us to be responsible for whatever we do & whatever we should be doing. Therefore it becomes our utmost duty to protect turtles.