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You are here: Home / Basic Biology of Caribbean Sea Turtles / Pictorial Key / Green Turtle

Green Turtle

grDescription of the Green Turtle
(Chelonia mydas)

Colouration*HeadLimbsCarapacePlastronWeightDistribution
taxcm-green-turtle-w-sea-stars-c-caroline-rogers-us-national-park-serviceDorsally black in hatchlings, becoming brown with radiating streaks in immatures, very variable in adults (generally brown, buff, and other earth tones; plain, streaked or spotted); underside white in hatchlings, yellowish in adults.

*source: Pritchard & Mortimier (1999)

taxcm-cm-closeup-c-caroline-rogerstaxcm-cm-head-profileAnteriorly rounded; width to 15 cm; one pair of prefrontal scales; four pairs of postorbital scales.
Single claw on each flipper (rarely, two in some hatchlings).
taxcm-cm-in-seagrass-usvi-nps-c-caroline-s-rogerstaxcm-cm-dorsalBroadly oval, margin sometimes scalloped but not serrated, and not incurved above hind limbs; four pairs of costal scutes; straight carapace length (SCL) to about 120 cm.
taxcm-cm-w-mabel-nava-stcb-culebrita-mar05

taxcm-ventralVery pale in color, typically four pairs of inframarginal scutes (without pores).

To about 230 kg in the Atlantic and western Pacific Oceans, less in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean.
All sub-tropical and tropical seas.

Loggerhead turtle

Loggerhead turtle
(Caretta caretta)

gr

Green Turtle
(Chelonia mydas)

lb

Leatherback Turtle
(Dermochelys coriacea)

hb

Hawksbill Turtle
(Eretmochelys imbricata)

kr

Kemp’s Ridley
(Lepidochelys kempii)

lo
 
 
Olive Ridley
(Lepidochelys olivacea)

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cmleaf02

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Working together to realize a future where all inhabitants of the Wider Caribbean Region, human and sea turtle alike, can live together in balance.

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