Leatherback Turtle

Dorsally predominantly black, with variable degrees of white or paler spotting; spots may be bluish or pink on neck and base of flippers; light pigment predominating on plastron.

*source: Pritchard & Mortimier (1999)

Shape broadly triangular; width to 25 cm; two prominent maxiallary cusps, covered with unscaled skin in adults.

Forelimbs extremely long; unscaled skin in adults; all limbs clawless.

Elongate with seven prominent longitudinal ridges (keels); scutes always absent; adults with smooth skin, but hatchlings covered with small bead-like scales; straight carapace length to 180 cm (to 165 cm in the eastern Pacific).

Black and white in color; relatively small, distensible (with very little bone).

Adult females to 500 kg in the western Atlantic, less in eastern Pacific.

All oceans, sub-arctic to tropical.