Dermochelys coriacea (Leatherback Sea Turtle)
The common name of this Sea Turtle in English is commonly called Leatherback Sea Turtle, Leatherback Seaturtle and Thai name called เต่ามะเฟือง (Dtao Ma-feuang).
เต่ามะเฟือง : Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761)
Dermochelys coriacea is a species of the Leatherback Sea Turtle Genus (Dermochelys) within the Leatherback Turtle Family (Dermochelyidae), 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).
Published in Vandelli,D. Epistola de holothurio, et testudine coriacea ad celeberrimum Carolum Linnaeum equitem naturae curiosum Dioscoridem II. Conzatti, Padua. (1761).
The name Dermochelys is formed from the Greek words derma (skin, hide) and chelys (tortoise, turtle), and refers to the coarse skin covering the carapace. The specific epithet 'coriacea' is derived from the Latin coriaceus (of leather) and refers to the species’ leatherlike carapace.
Geographic Range
Leatherbacks are distributed circumglobally, with nesting sites on tropical sandy beaches and foraging ranges that extend into temperate and sub-polar latitudes (see Figure 1 in Supplementary Material and global distribution map). See Eckert et al. (2012) for review of Leatherback geographic range.
Habitat and Ecology
D. coriacea is an oceanic, deep-diving marine turtle inhabiting tropical, subtropical, and subpolar seas. Leatherbacks make extensive migrations between different feeding areas at different seasons, and to and from nesting areas.
Leatherbacks feed predominantly on jellyfishes, salps and siphonophores. Females usually produce several (3-10) clutches of 60-90 eggs in a reproductive season, and typically have a re-migration interval of multiple years (2+) between subsequent reproductive seasons. For a thorough review of Leatherback biology, please see Eckert et al. (2012).
Synonym
- Testudo coriacea Domenico Agostino Vandelli (1761)
- Testudo coriacea Carolus Linnaeus (1766)
- Testudo arcuata Mark Catesby (1771)
- Testudo lyra Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1788)
- Testudo tuberculata Thomas Pennant (in Johann David Schoepff) (1801)
- Chelonia lutaria Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (1814)
- Dermochelys Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (1816)
- Sphargis mercurialis Blasius Merrem (1820)
- Dermochelis atlantica Charles Alexandre Lesueur (nomen nudum) (1829)
- Dermatochelys porcata Johann Georg Wagler (1830)
- Sphargis coriacea John Edward Gray (1831)
- Testudo coriacea Georges-Frédéric Cuvier (1831)
- Sphargis coriacea André Marie Constant Duméril & Gabriel Bibron (1835)
- Dermatochelys coriacea Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1864)
- Sphargis mercurialis John Edward Gray (1873)
- Sphargis coriacea var. schlegelii Samuel Walton Garman (1884)
- Dermochelys coriacea George Albert Boulenger (1889)
- Sphargis angusta Philippi (1899)
- Dermochelys schlegelii Samuel Walton Garman (1908)
- Dermochelys coriacea schlegeli Frederick A. Shannon (1956)
- Dermochelys coriacea Robert Cyril Stebbins (1985)
- Dermochelys coriacea schlegeli Robert Cyril Stebbins (1985)
- Dermochelys coriacea Roger Conant & Joseph Thomas Collins (1991)
- Dermochelys coriacea Engelmann et al. (1993)
- Dermochelys coriacea Ernest A. Liner (1994)
- Dermochelys coriacea Frank Glaw & Miguel Vences (1994)
- Dermochelys coriacea Merel J. Cox et al. (1998)
- Dermochelys coriacea Harold Cogger (2000)
- Dermochelys coriacea Bonin et al. (2006)