By: Mrs. King’s & Mrs. Nguyen’s Classes

What It Looks Like (Characteristics) The sea turtle is a reptile. It is covered with hard scales made of keratin. Sea turtles lay eggs on beaches. Sea turtles do not have teeth, instead they have a very strong jaws that have very sharp edges. Did you know that sometimes a sea turtle takes in too much salt from the ocean water? To get rid of the extra salt, sea turtles shed big, salty tears.

Where It Lives Sea turtles occupy different types of marine waters. Some are found only on the coast of certain US states whereas others are found in the Mediterranean Sea, Caribbean Sea, or Gulf of Mexico.

Life Cycle The Life Cycle of a Sea Turtle 1. Female turtle arrives at the beach. 2. Female turtle digs a nest using her back legs to scoop dirt until she has made a hole. 3. Female turtle lays her eggs. She may lay as many as 200 eggs in one nest. She then covers the nest with damp soil. 4. Female turtle returns to water. 5. Sea turtles hatch 2-3 months after they are laid. 6. Hatchlings dig their way out of the nests and try to get to the water as quickly as possible. 7. Hatchlings will return to the same beach some 20 years later to mate and have young of their own.

Food Chain Sea turtles eat sea grass, algae, and jellyfish. They mainly will eat fish and adapt a more plant eating diet as they age.

Photos of Adult & Baby Do they look alike? Baby Adult

Want to learn more about sea turtles? You can visit these websites!