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Fact: Sea turtles are aptly named, for they spend most of their lives in the sea. Males rarely ever go on land at all, and females only climb up on the shore to lay their eggs for just a few hours before returning to the sea.
Source: Planet Earth: Edge of the Sea, by Russell Sackett and the Editors of Time-Life Books, page 73.
Fact: Eastern Pacific green sea turtles are different than the other sea turtles, because they sometimes leave the water to sun themselves on land. Most sea turtles do not leave the sea, unless it is nesting time.
Source: NationalGeographic.com.
Fact: Green sea turtles can get big, but the largest one ever found weighed a whopping 871 pounds [395 kg]!
Source: The Humane Society of the United States.
A green sea turtle napping on the beach.
Image Source: Ryan Hagerty, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Fact: Of all the sea turtles with hard shells, the green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, is the largest.
Source: Turtles.org.
Fact: A turtle's shell is more than just handy protection. The shell is such an intrinsic part of the reptile, its thoracic vertebrae and ribs are actually a part of the shell itself.
Source: Integrated Principles of Zoology, 5th Edition, Cleveland P. Hickman, Sr. (Department of Zoology, DePauw University), Cleveland P. Hickman, Jr. (Department of Biology, Washington and Lee University), Frances M. Hickman (Department of Zoology, DePauw University), page 519.
True or false? The green sea turtle can pull its head into its shell.
Answer: False. This is not only true of the green sea turtle, but of other sea turtles as well.
Source: NationalGeographic.com.
Image Source: Vlad Butsky/ License under Creative Commons 2.0.
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Fact: Green turtles use their finely serrated jaws to tear off vegetation. They have special bacteria in their intestines which aid them in digesting this food.
Source: The Humane Society of the United States.
Nutrition of Marine Plants in the Diet of the Green Sea Turtle (McDermid)
Fact: Because green sea turtles are herbivores, they are sometimes known as "cows of the ocean." This term should not be confused with sirenians, or "sea cows." Sirenians are mammals that include dugong and manatees, but not green sea turtles. Green turtles are reptiles.
Source: The Humane Society of the United States.
