July 21, 2018

5 Sea Turtle Facts For Kids

Sea turtles are some of the most amazing creatures in the world. We can live our whole lives walking around the planet without ever even realizing they are out there, but it’s so much cooler to know about these creatures!  Here are some fascinating facts about sea turtles:

• Sea turtles have been around for more than a hundred million years!  

They roamed the seas for such a long time that they even outlived the mighty dinosaurs!  Dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago, but we still have several species of sea turtles in our oceans today!

• Sea turtles are incredible travelers!

Some sea turtles cross entire oceans all by themselves. They can swim better than some fish and there are young turtles who spend years just swimming across hundreds of miles of sea. 

• Some sea turtles aren’t full grown until they are 30 years old!

There are seven species of sea turtle and some of them take a very long time to grow up. They are born on the beach and travel out to sea. Some of them live a long time just hanging out and swimming around. Eventually, they go to where other grown-up sea turtles are and they prepare to have babies. 

• Some sea turtles graze like horses! 

Several types of sea turtles eat both fish and sea plants, but some species mainly eat just sea grass!  There are turtles that just roam around and nibble at underwater grasses. You might think of the wide areas of sea grass like a pasture for cows and horses, but they are just full of turtles eating grass!

• When sea turtle mothers lay their eggs, they aren’t boys or girls yet!

That’s right. The temperature determines whether the baby sea turtles will be born as a boy or a girl. Scientists have discovered that for many turtle eggs, ones that stay around 80-81 degrees Fahrenheit will produce a male baby. Turtle eggs that stay at higher temperatures, perhaps 87-88 degrees with produce a female. If the temperature goes back and forth, some of the babies will be boys and some will be girls.

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