Sea turtles are fascinating creatures of the ocean. They’re very famous for their mass egg hatchings on beaches, so it’s easy to overlook something as simple as their diet. Check out this video by National Geographic of a sea turtle eating a jellyfish like spaghetti!
Leatherback sea turtles are unable to chew their food.
©iStock.com/AGAMI stock
What Do Sea Turtles Eat?
Sea turtle diets vary widely based on the species. The typical sea turtle that comes to mind is the green sea turtle. Green sea turtles eat mostly algae and seagrasses, which give them both their name and color! Hawksbill sea turtles eat exclusively sea sponges, while loggerhead sea turtles eat crabs and conchs. Other sea turtle species, such as leatherbacks, olive ridleys, Kemp’s ridleys, and flatbacks, all have jellyfish in their diets.
Carnivorous sea turtles prefer to get their nutrition from other living organisms, such as crabs and shrimp, for multiple reasons. A carnivorous diet provides more protein and fats to sea turtles, allowing them to derive more energy from the foods they eat. Leatherbacks’ diets mostly consist of jellyfish, given their unique beaks, which make it difficult for them to eat anything else. They have two sharp cusps sitting on both the top and bottom jaw that make it easy to pierce soft organisms such as jellyfish. This unique beak means that leatherback sea turtles can eat up to 16,000 calories in jellyfish a day! Evolving to eat jellyfish has resulted in unique biology that allows them to withstand jellyfish stings.
A fully plant-based diet would make it more difficult for these amazing creatures to swim. Green sea turtles are an exception to this, partly because of how they have evolved. These sea turtles have serrated, or saw-like, beaks that allow them to scrape algae off rocks in large quantities. This is vastly different from the aforementioned leatherbacks.
How Can Leatherback Sea Turtles Eat Jellyfish?
How might a sea turtle be able to eat jellyfish? Simply put, it’s because they’re reptiles. Reptiles’ scales are made out of keratin, the same as our nails and hair, and the scales overlap each other all over the body. This creates an extremely strong and durable layer of skin. This layer makes it difficult for jellyfish to sting a sea turtle, as they cannot sting past the strong scales. That’s why in the video, the sea turtle is seen moving the jellyfish around with its flipper without worry.
Leatherbacks are unique in that they have something called papillae. Papillae are small, spiky protrusions that can come off any part or organ of the body. They are often seen in animals’ mouths, such as a cat’s scratchy tongue. Papillae line the mouths and esophagus of leatherback sea turtles, allowing them to safely eat and digest a jellyfish without being stung. This unique result of evolution has made leatherback sea turtles so good at eating jellyfish, slurping them up like spaghetti!
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