Technical Summary of the Biology of MariTechnical Summary of the Biology of Marine Turtles in Australia

Technical Summary of the Biology of Marine Turtles in Australia

There are two extant families of marine turtles, Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae, and both occur in Australian waters and breed on Australian beaches. Both families share some common morphological features and life history traits.

They live almost their entire lives in the marine environment but must surface to breathe. In common with all extant turtles they have no teeth, their beaks being covered by keratinised sheathes. They have an acute sense of smell but not of taste. They have well-developed eyes with colour vision. Hearing is restricted to very low frequencies.

Females come ashore and lay spherical eggs with flexible calcareous shells containing an embryo developed to the gastrula stage. For successful incubation the eggs must be buried in ventilated, low salinity, high humidity nest sites that are not subjected to flooding or erosion and have a temperature range of 25–33°C. Sex of hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the nest during the middle third of development. Incubation period is a function of nest temperature. There is no parental care of eggs or young. Hatchlings do not feed for the first few days of life but live off the remains of internalised yolk sacs.