History, Evolution, and Species of Sea turtles

History, Evolution, and Species of Sea turtles

Introduction

I can give a lot of information about sea turtles, but because of time limits, I will give to you the basic part of the Information from my previous research.  Sea turtles fall in the large category of sea reptiles and class crustacean. Their large body size and shape with powerful flippers allow them to easily navigate through water when swimming despite the great depth of the ocean. However, you should note that as soon as the male turtles emerge from the eggs on the shore, they never appear again unlike the females which come on a regular basis to lay eggs. In this research, I did a thorough analysis of the sea turtles’ family and came up with tangible information concerning the history, evolution and the different species of turtles that are in existence on earth today.

Turtles History

I will start by looking at the fossils of ancient turtles which are dated back 215 million years ago (Carr, 2014). Interestingly, these fossils were discovered in Germany during a transitional period known as the Triassic as they add up to four in the number of the oldest fossils to ever be discovered on earth. My research has established that the ancient fossil creatures had complete shells and spend most of their time living on the land, unlike the modern turtles which have their habitat in water. From my research, I noted that these creatures have spent more time on the earth, unlike the dinosaurs, in other words, they existed before the dinosaurs error.

Evolution of the Sea Turtles

The evolution of sea turtles can be traced back to two main reasons; one is when birds were evolving from the feathered dinosaurs, the land turtles shifted into the sea giving rise to the sea turtles. In other words, the sea turtles’ origin and evolution are linked back to the migratory patterns of the land turtles which existed and later shifted into the sea. The earlier turtle’s ancestor that lived in about 120 million years ago was the Desmatochelys Padilla, its fossils were discovered in Columbia. It is believed that the turtle gave rise to the santanachelys gaffneyi species which existed 20million years ago. Eventually, after an estimated period of 10 million years, the Archelon Ischyros came into existence. This turtle was long equivalent to 5 meters in length and 2100 kg in weight (Schoch, & Sues, 2015). The Archelon later on inhabited the season the American side and thus the evolution of the sea turtles.

Species of Sea Turtles

After the evolution, the sea turtles differentiated into various species, with the entire family belonging to either the Dermochelyidae, which are the ancient turtles like the Leatherback and the Cheloniidae, comprising of modern the turtles. There are a good number of modern species of turtles; these are the green turtle, flatback, loggerhead, olive ridley and the Kemp’s ridley.  I found out that that the Olive ridley and the flatback ridley are only common in Florida while the rest of the species can be found in other water all over the globe (Schuyler et al 2014). Finally, I would like to inform you that the modern turtles differ greatly from the ancient once simply because they have long flippers at the forelimbs. Consequently, they cannot retract back their heads into the shell-like their counterparts who live in terrestrial lands.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude this speech by reminding you one important thing; turtles are among the ancient lives to exist in this world when compared to dinosaurs. They existed on the earth long before human beings. Develop likings to turtles and you understand these unique creatures in depths.