Have you ever heard of a Leatherback sea turtle? They are well known for being among the largest sea turtles on Earth, and sea turtles, different from freshwater turtles, get pretty damn big.
These turtles are capable of reaching up to seven feet in length, with the capability of growing to become over 2,000 pounds in weight. One of these turtles could literally weigh a ton.
This video captured an incredible scene in which a giant leatherback turtle came up to the shore for a break, to rest on the sand and maybe reflect on its hard life as a giant sea creature. The video was captured at an unknown location and seems to have been largely forgotten by the media, though it was reported on by a few independent outlets.
Several tourists gazed at the scene in awe and excitement as the massive turtle made use of its flippers to crawl across the beach and end its little break on the sand with an entry back into the ocean, its home.
After a few attempts to get back into the water, the sea turtle manages to do it, and rides the waves off into the great big ocean, probably never to be seen again by those people.
Typically, these massive turtles live in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, most notably in the warmer waters near the equator. Off the coast of Central America, they are often found.
During nesting season, the turtles climb up out of the water for the purposes of digging a nest, and laying their eggs in sand near the water to safely hatch and repopulate their species.
Upon the hatching of those eggs, the new baby sea turtles are at a close enough distance to make it back into the ocean and begin their lives. Think about this though: those babies take an incredible 15 to 20 years to reach maturity.
Do you know how long one of these turtles can live for? They can live for over 100 years: a century.
Right now, century-old turtles probably exist on this planet, and if you saw one you might not even be able to recognize it.
Just a simple Wikipedia entry on these turtles is fascinating. According to Wikipedia:
“The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell, hence the name. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh. Dermochelys is the only extant genus of the family Dermochelyidae.”
So they are the fourth heaviest modern reptile, carrying on the legacy of the dinosaurs.
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