the.com/leatherback turtle
A dinosaur-era reptile that chases jellyfish across oceans wearing rubber armor instead of a shell.
means The largest sea turtle alive, with a flexible, leathery carapace instead of hard bony plates, built for diving deep and swimming vast open-ocean distances in search of jellyfish.
from Named simply for its shell: unlike other sea turtles, it lacks a hard keratin-and-bone carapace, instead carrying a layer of oil-rich connective tissue and thin bony plates beneath skin-like, rubbery hide — hence 'leatherback.' The scientific name, Dermochelys coriacea, reinforces this plainly: Greek derma (skin) plus chelys (turtle), and Latin coriacea, 'leathery' or 'of leather.' No myth needed here — the name is an old, honest observation of the animal's most unusual feature.
- no hard shell
- Carapace is cartilage and oily skin, not bone
- size record
- Largest sea turtle, up to 2,000 pounds
- dive depth
- Can dive deeper than most whales, 4,000 feet
- ancient lineage
- Last of a turtle family 100 million years old