Kura-kura (Turtles)
Leatherback Sea Turtle
Dermochelys coriacea
- langka
- 10 km/h
- Rentan
Largest sea turtle alive, crossing entire oceans on jellyfish. Dives deeper than any other reptile, past 1,000 meters.
- Populasi
- Estimated 26,000-43,000 nesting females annually worldwide, down from an estimated 115,000 in 1980
- Habitat
- Open-ocean (pelagic) forager ranging from the surface to depths beyond 1,000-1,200 m; comes ashore (females only) solely to nest, on tropical and subtropical sandy beaches
- Fakta menarik
- Unlike other reptiles, the leatherback can hold a core body temperature up to ~18°C above the surrounding seawater through countercurrent heat exchange in its flippers, thick oil-rich insulating tissue, metabolic heat generation, and sheer body mass - letting it forage for jellyfish in near-freezing subarctic and Arctic-adjacent waters.
- Sebaran
- The most widely distributed of all sea turtles - found throughout the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, from tropical nesting beaches (e.g. French Guiana, Costa Rica, U.S. Virgin Islands) to cold subarctic/temperate foraging waters off Norway, Alaska, and Newfoundland/Labrador
- Makanan
- Carnivorous specialist feeder on jellyfish, siphonophores, salps/tunicates, and other soft-bodied gelatinous zooplankton; occasionally takes small crustaceans, fish, cephalopods, and sea urchins
- Ukuran
- 1,8 m
- Masa hidup
- 40 tahun
