Chelonia mydas (Green Sea Turtle)

The common name of this Sea-Turtle in English is commonly called Green Sea Turtle, Green Turtle, Black Sea Turtle and Thai name called เต่าตนุ (Dtao Ta-nu).

Chelonia mydas (Green Sea Turtle, เต่าตนุ)
Source: iNaturalist.org; Chelonia mydas, Photo by © Charlie Shuetrim, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

เต่าตนุ : Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758)

Chelonia mydas is a species of the Green Sea Turtle Genus (Chelonia) within the Sea Turtle Family (Cheloniidae), Superfamily Chelonioidea, in the Suborder Cryptodira, in the Turtles Order (Testudines), in the Reptile Class (Reptilia), in the Chordate Phylum (Chordata) in the Animal Kingdom (Animalia).

Subspecies

  • Chelonia mydas agassizi Marie Firmin Bocourt, 1868
  • Chelonia mydas japonica Carl Peter Thunberg, 1787
  • Chelonia mydas mydas Carolus Linnaeus, 1758

Geographic Range

The Green Turtle has a circumglobal distribution, occurring throughout tropical and, to a lesser extent, subtropical waters (Atlantic Ocean – eastern central, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, western central; Indian Ocean – eastern, western; Mediterranean Sea; Pacific Ocean – eastern central, northwest, southwest, western central).

Green turtles are highly migratory and they undertake complex movements and migrations through geographically disparate habitats. Nesting occurs in more than 80 countries worldwide (Hirth 1997).

Their movements within the marine environment are less understood but it is believed that green turtles inhabit coastal waters of over 140 countries (Groombridge and Luxmoore 1989).

Habitat and Ecology

Like most sea turtles, green turtles are highly migratory and use a wide range of broadly separated localities and habitats during their lifetimes (for review see Hirth 1997).

Upon leaving the nesting beach, it has been hypothesized that hatchlings begin an oceanic phase (Carr 1987), perhaps floating passively in major current systems (gyres) that serve as open-ocean developmental grounds (Carr and Meylan 1980, Witham 1991).

After a number of years in the oceanic zone, these turtles recruit to neritic developmental areas rich in seagrass and/or marine algae where they forage and grow until maturity (Musick and Limpus 1997). 

Upon attaining sexual maturity green turtles commence breeding migrations between foraging grounds and nesting areas that are undertaken every few years (Hirth 1997).

Migrations are carried out by both males and females and may traverse oceanic zones, often spanning thousands of kilometers (Carr 1986, Mortimer and Portier 1989).

During non-breeding periods adults reside at coastal neritic feeding areas that sometimes coincide with juvenile developmental habitats (e.g., Limpus et al. 1994, Seminoff et al. 2003).

Reproduction

Chelonia mydas has temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD, STANDORA & SPOTILA 1986, SARRE et al. 2004). FRITZ (1995) reports hybrids between Chelonia mydas and Eretmochelys imbricata. Koo et al. (2014) report hybrids between Chelonia mydas and Caretta caretta (see also NCBI taxID 2305479).

Synonyms

  • Testudo mydas Carolus Linnaeus (1758)
  • Chelonia mydas mydas Carolus Linnaeus (1758)
  • Testudo macropus Walbaum (1782)
  • Testudo viridis Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (1783)
  • Testudo japonica Carl Peter Thunberg (1787)
  • Chelonia mydas japonica Carl Peter Thunberg (1787)
  • Testudo marina vulgaris Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1788)
  • Testudo viridisquamosa Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1788)
  • Testudo mydas macropus Georg Adolf Suckow (1798)
  • Chelonia mydas Alexandre Brongniart (1800)
  • Testudo chloronotos Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1800)
  • Testudo rugosa François Marie Daudin (1801)
  • Testudo cepediana François Marie Daudin (1801)
  • Testudo cepediana François Marie Daudin (1802)
  • Testudo rugosa François Marie Daudin (1802)
  • Chelone mydas Alexandre Brongniart (1805)
  • Chelonia japonica August Friedrich Schweigger (1812)
  • Chelonia virgata August Friedrich Schweigger (1812)
  • Chelonia mydas August Friedrich Schweigger (1812)
  • Caretta cepedii Blasius Merrem (1820)
  • Caretta esculenta Blasius Merrem (1820)
  • Caretta thunbergii Blasius Merrem (1820)
  • Caretta thunbergi Blasius Merrem (1820)
  • Caretta mydas Leopold Fitzinger (1826)
  • Caretta virgata Leopold Fitzinger (1826)
  • Chelonia lachrymata Georges-Frédéric Cuvier (1829)
  • Chelonia maculosa Georges-Frédéric Cuvier (1829)
  • Chelonia midas Johann Georg Wagler (1830)
  • Chelonia mydas var. japonica John Edward Gray (1831)
  • Testudo Mydas Georges-Frédéric Cuvier (1831)
  • Chelonia esculenta Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann & Johann Friedrich Ruthe (1832)
  • Chelonia bicarinata René-Primevère Lesson (1834)
  • Chelonia marmorata André Marie Constant Duméril & Gabriel Bibron (1835)
  • cepedeana Leopold Fitzinger (1835)
  • Chelonia (Chelonia)
  • Chelonia viridis Coenraad Jacob Temminck & Hermann Schlegel (1835)
  • Chelonia maculosa André Marie Constant Duméril & Gabriel Bibron (1835)
  • Chelonia virgata André Marie Constant Duméril & Gabriel Bibron (1835)
  • Mydas mydas Jean Theodore Cocteau (1838)
  • Mydasea mydas Paul Gervais (1843)
  • Euchelonia mydas Johann Jakob von Tschudi (1846)
  • Megemys mydas Gistel (1848)
  • Chelonia lacrymata Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1857)
  • Chelonia formosa Charles Frédéric Girard (1858)
  • Chelonia tenuis Charles Frédéric Girard (1858)
  • Euchelys macropus Charles Frédéric Girard (1858)
  • Euchelus macropus Charles Frédéric Girard (1858)
  • Chelone macropus Alexander Strauch (1862)
  • Chelone maculosa Alexander Strauch (1862)
  • Chelone marmorata Alexander Strauch (1862)
  • Chelone virgata Alexander Strauch (1862)
  • Chelone viridis Alexander Strauch (1862)
  • Chelonia albiventer Nardo (1864)
  • Chelonia virgata Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1864)
  • Thalassiochelys albiventer Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1865)
  • Chelonia midas José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1866)
  • Chelonia agassizii Marie Firmin Bocourt (1868)
  • Chelonia mydas agassizi Marie Firmin Bocourt (1868)
  • Chelonia agassizi Marie Firmin Bocourt (1868)
  • Mydas viridis John Edward Gray (1870)
  • Chelone midas Edward Drinker Cope (1871)
  • Chelonia agassizii John Edward Gray (1873)
  • Chelonia lata Philippi (1887)
  • Chelone virgata George Albert Boulenger (1887)
  • Chelone mydas George Albert Boulenger (1889)
  • Chelonia japonica Leonhard Hess Stejneger (1907)
  • Natator tessellatus McCulloch (1908)
  • Chelonia japonica Samuel Walton Garman (1908)
  • Natator tesselatus McCulloch (1908)
  • Chelonia japonica Leonhard Hess Stejneger (1910)
  • Chelonia virgata Thomas Barbour (1918)
  • Chelonia mydas mydas Robert Mertens & Lorenz Müller (1928)
  • Caretta thunbergi Malcolm Arthur Smith (1931)
  • Chelonia mydas agassizii Archie Fairly Carr (1952)
  • Chelonia mydas agassizi Karl Patterson Schmidt (1953)
  • Chelonia mydas japonica Frederick A. Shannon (1956)
  • Chelonia mydas carrinegra Janalee P. Caldwell (1962)
  • Chelonia agazisii Tamayo (1962)
  • Testudo nigrita Tamayo (1962)
  • Chelonia agassizi Archie Fairly Carr (1967)
  • Chelonia mydus Wirot Nutaphand (1979)
  • Chelonia mydas carinegra Wirot Nutaphand (1979)
  • Testudo chloronotus Smith & Smith (1980)
  • Chelonia mydas Robert Cyril Stebbins (1985)
  • Chelonia mydas agassizii Robert Cyril Stebbins (1985)
  • Chelone albiventer Márquez (1990)
  • Chelonia mydas Roger Conant & Joseph Thomas Collins (1991)
  • Chelonia mydas Engelmann et al. (1993)
  • Chelonia mydas Frank Glaw & Miguel Vences (1994)
  • Chelonia agassizii Ernest A. Liner (1994)
  • Caretta thumbergii R.C. Sharma (1998)
  • Chelonia mydas viridis Karl & Bowen (1999)
  • Chelonia mydas Harold Cogger (2000)
  • Chelonia agassizzii sic Edgar Lehr (2002)
  • Chelonia agassizii Bonin et al. (2006)
  • Chelonia mydas mydas Uwe Fritz & Havas (2007)
  • Chelonia mydas agassizii Uwe Fritz & Havas (2007)
  • Chelonia mydas japonica Sascha Pawlowski & Christine Krämer (2008)