Here's one species of turtles do not want to kiss . Believe me , one can see the Leatherback Sea Turtle adorable and harmless , but hides behind its cute face a range of killer teeth , mouth making it one of the scariest in the world .. Way hundreds of jagged stalactite -like teeth called ' papillae ' line the mouth and throat turtles all the way down to the gut . You just have to see it to believe it .
The leatherback is the third largest living reptile in the world , and also the largest turtle . This is actually a fairly docile creatures , with a diet that consists mainly of jellyfish . In fact , the only reason this is getting so big is because it eats an astonishingly large number of slow -moving jellies . Sometimes , the leatherback may consume about 73 percent of its own body weight in a single day , which is nearly 16,000 calories at 6:57 times less than it needs to survive . Talk about binge eating !
So why should the content of the jelly-eating machine a killer set of teeth, you ask? Well, it gives teeth an evolutionary advantage. The sharp, pointy, facing backward papillae actually prevent the slippery jelly from escaping by floating back out of the mouth. This means that the leatherback was able to eat all kinds of jellies - right from the smallest swarms most massive ones like the Lion's mane jelly. This turtle species also has an unusually long throat that extends way past its belly and all the way to the rear. Then it loops back up to connect to the stomach. So it's like a conveyor belt designed to catch, store and process food continuously.
When a baby leatherback first makes an appearance in the world, it is only a tiny hatchling about 3 inches long. But thanks to all of the water-rich jellies it consumes over its lifetime, it can grow to an average of 4-6 ft in length. Now, if you are thinking about nothing but eat and sit around all day humungous turtle works, you are wrong. The leatherback turtle is a migratory species, traveling over 10,000 miles a year. It needs all the energy it can get to cover such large distances. And because jellyfish are not exactly energy-strengthening food, best bet is made in the skin are the things that have faced many jellies as can be managed in one go.
Unfortunately, despite its brilliantly designed Digest system, the leatherback is unable to distinguish the difference between jellyfish and plastic waste floating in the water that gets stuck on her large papillae. It is becoming a major cause of concern as the fascinating creatures are facing extinction. Serious efforts were made to preserve the species and hope they do not succeed.
Sources: Science Based Life, Story of Size
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