Do you want to be a turtle expert?  Of course you do!  There are lots of terms and definitions to know.  Here are some of the words you will need to know to be a turtle expert and what they mean:

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Adaptation:something an organism has or does to help them survive in their habitats

Arribada*:a mass nesting event seen in the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, it is where hundreds of nesting females come out of the water at the same time to lay their eggs

Barnacle*:a small animal that lives on the backs of sea turtles

Carapace*:a turtle’s top shell

Carnivore:an animal that eats only meat

Caruncle*:a small tooth on the end of a sea turtle hatchlings beak to help them break out of their egg

Cold-stunning:an event similar to hypothermia in humans – it’s when a sea turtle gets caught in water that’s too cold and their body becomes too cold to function

Counter-Current Heat Exchange*: how leatherback sea turtles keep warm.  The blood returning to the heart is warmed up by the blood leaving the heart

Dimorphism*:how we can tell male turtles from female turtles

Endangered:the federal status of all sea turtle species

Epibiota* rganisms that live on the back of a sea turtles shell (example:barnacles, leeches, algae)

Esophageal papillae*:thorns that line the throat of sea turtles to help protect their throat and help keep their food in their mouth so they can spit water out of their nose

Ecothermic:cold-blooded, not able to maintain a constant body temperature

Flippers:what sea turtles use to help them swim.Their front flippers are used for pulling them through the water and their rear flippers are used for steering.

Hatchling*:a baby sea turtle

Herbivore:an animal that eats only plants

Omnivore:an animal that eats both plants and meat

Plastron:a turtle’s bottom shell

Reptile:an air-breathing, cold-blooded vertebrate with scales

Rhamphotheca:another word for a sea turtles beak.Each sea turtles beak is designed by what they eat

Scute:sea turtle scales.This is made out of keratin-the same protein our hair is made out of.They are what give a turtle’s carapace the coloration patterns

Spongivore:an animal that eats sponges

Turtle Excluder Device (TED)*:a device created to keep sea turtles from becoming stuck in a shrimp net