Dermochelys coriacea

The leatherback sea turtle, sometimes called the lute turtle, leathery turtle or simply the luth, is a large species of sea turtle. The largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, it reaches lengths of up to 2.7 metres and weights of 500 kilograms (1,100 lb). 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; instead, its carapace is covered by oily flesh and flexible, leather-like skin, for which it is named. Leatherback turtles have a global range, although there are multiple distinct subpopulations. The species as a whole is considered vulnerable, and some of its subpopulations are critically endangered.

Dermochelys coriacea

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
Leatherback sea turtlePBDB
Sits inside
DermochelysPBDB
Diet
durophage, piscivorePBDB, for Dermochelyidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Dermochelyidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Dermochelyidae

Time the record covers

At most 129 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 129 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 4 occurrences147 ka–126 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126 ka–105 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105 ka–84 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84 ka–63 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences63 ka–42 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42 ka–21 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences629 ka0 Mya

4 occurrences of Dermochelys coriacea on record, most of them in the Holocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Dermochelys coriacea and its relatives

Holocene

Where Dermochelys coriacea and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

70 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Dermochelys coriacea, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Dermochelys coriacea

Credit
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
boxgizmo
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDermochelys through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Vandelli 1761)