They are found throughout the world in subtropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. They nest in over 80 countries.
They live in the open ocean. Females come onto the beach where they were born to lay eggs.
They are the largest hard-shelled sea turtle. They have a relatively small head. Adults are are about 3-4 ft long and weighs up to 350 pounds. Their shells can be from olive green to dark brown or grey. They are much lighter underneath. Their shells have five plates (called scutes) running down the middle and four running down each side. They have a tooth-like jagged-egged lower jaw for grabbing seagrass. (Their diet of seagrass and algae gives their fat a greenish tint, which earned them their Green Sea Turtle name.)
They are air-breathing reptiles and must return to the surface to breathe regularly. They migrate hundreds to thousands of miles (kilometers) each way between where they find seagrasses to eat and where they lay eggs (nesting beaches). They come out onto the beaches only at night (nocturnal). They live their lives alone (solitary) except when mating.
They are herbivores (the only herbivorous sea turtle species), eating seagrasses and algae. They have been known to occasionally each sponges and other small prey.
Adult females come out onto their native beaches at night (nocturnal) to dig a hole and lay their eggs in the sand. They then cover them and return to the ocean. They lay more than 100 egg in every nest and will dig a new nest every couple of weeks throughout the nesting season. Then they return to their feeding grounds. They do this every 2-5 years. When the eggs hatch, in about 2 months (60 days), the hatchings must make their way to the water. They look for the light on the water to orient their journey and so can be endangered by bright lights along developed beaches which may lead them inland. Once in the water, young hatchling often congregate in floating mats of sea life called, oceanic drift communities.
They can live for 70 years!
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Cheloniidae
Genus: Chelonia
Species: C. mydas
