Loggerhead turtle
Caretta caretta
- Scientific name
- Caretta caretta
- Group
- Sea turtles
- Rarity
- Common
- Where to see it
- Mediterranean
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Vulnerable
Did you know?
The loggerhead turtle has a large head and powerful jaws built for crushing hard-shelled prey like crabs and conches. Females often return to lay their eggs on the very beach where they hatched, sometimes decades earlier.
What defines this group — Sea turtles
Reptiles that went back to the sea: they breathe air and return to lay eggs on the beach where they hatched.
- Lungs, not gills: they have to surface to breathe.
- The front limbs have become paddles, and the shell can no longer tuck them away.
- Females find their way back to their birth beach, sometimes across thousands of kilometres.
Other species in this group
- Green sea turtle
- Hawksbill turtle
- Olive ridley turtle
- Leatherback turtle
- Flatback turtle
- Kemp's ridley turtle