Chelonia mydas
Green Turtle
Chelonia mydas, Great Barrier Reef, QLD, Australia, Photo: Antonia Cooper
Chelonia mydas, Great barrier reef, QLD, Australia, Photo: Antonia Cooper
Chelonia mydas, Great Barrier Reef, QLD, Australia, Photo: Antonia Cooper
Chelonia mydas, Montague Is, NSW, Australia, Photo: Andrew Green
Chelonia mydas, Lord Howe Is, NSW, Australia, Photo: Andrew Green
Similar Species
Distribution
Mediterranean, Temperate Africa, Temperate Australasia, Temperate South America, Temperate northern Atlantic, Temperate northern Pacific, Tropical Atlantic/Caribbean, Tropical Eastern Pacific, Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Green-brown upper shell with radiating streaks on plates, cream belly, four large plates along side of the back, four scales with black round marks behind eye, upper eyelid with enlarged scales. Females return to their beach of birth to lay up to 120 eggs in a nest dug in the sand, sometimes twice in a year. An important dietary item for Aboriginal people.
Information
Max Size: 1500 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 15.8-31.2°C
Depth: 0-25m
Habitat Generalization Index: N/A
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Endangered
Occurrence: Infrequent (6.3% of sites)
Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
Abundance: Solitary (1 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: Joe Shields