Sea turtles are marine reptiles with four limbs, whose bodies are protected by a thick shell. They can tuck their heads, legs and tails partly or completely under their shells.

A sea turtle's shell is made up of a dorsal side called the carapace and a ventral side called the plastron. Both are covered with scutes, whose arrangement and distribution help distinguish the different species of sea turtles.

Turtles are very ancient reptiles: the first ones appeared about 220 million years ago, 10 million years before the first dinosaurs !

They are found mainly in the tropical or temperate regions of the planet. Most sea turtles live in warm seas.

All sea turtles lay eggs and bury them in the sand before leaving them behind.

The best-known sea turtles are: the green sea turtle, the hawksbill sea turtle, the flatback sea turtle, the loggerhead sea turtle, the Kemp's ridley sea turtle, the olive ridley sea turtle and the enormous leatherback sea turtle…

The green sea turtle is one of the few sea turtles still found in the Mediterranean. It weighs between 220 lbs and 660 lbs and measures about 3.94 feet in length on average.

It feeds on algae and plants.

The female mates with several males. She can travel thousands of miles to reach her nesting site. Like all sea turtles, the green sea turtle does not care for its eggs.

If the temperature does not exceed 84.2°F, the hatchlings will be males. But if it reaches 86°F, all the young will be females. After about 2 months, the baby sea turtles will hatch and make their way to the sea.

The hawksbill sea turtle lives in the planet's tropical waters. It has become rare due to commercial use of its shell. Turtle shell is used to make eyeglass frames, combs and jewelry.

The flatback sea turtle is an endemic species of the tropical and subtropical waters of northern Australia, characterized by its flat, smooth shell. Unlike most other sea turtles, it prefers shallow waters and seagrass beds for feeding and lays its eggs exclusively on Australian beaches.

The loggerhead sea turtle is a large turtle of warm seas. It is endangered, with fewer and fewer remaining.

The Kemp's ridley sea turtle is the smallest and most endangered of the sea turtles, identifiable by its rounded gray-green shell. Females come ashore to nest on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

The olive ridley sea turtle is a small species of sea turtle, recognizable by its heart-shaped shell and gray-green color. It is known for its massive synchronized nesting events, called « arribadas », during which thousands of females come ashore to lay their eggs on the beaches.

The leatherback sea turtle is the largest sea turtle. It can reach up to 7.9 feet in length.

Its favorite food: jellyfish. It can eat large quantities every day without getting sick. It also feeds on various types of mollusks.

The leatherback sea turtle has neither claws nor scales. It can lay between 60 and 100 eggs and always returns to the beach where it was born to nest. It lives on average about 100 years.