Leatherback sea turtles eat by swallowing water along with their prey, then vomiting up the water while the spikes in their mouths prevent the prey from escaping.
RedditThe rima oris of leatherback turtle sea turtles as well as loggerheads and green ocean turtles are line with spikes that allow them to feast on one C of man-of-war per daylight .
Have you ever seen the interior of a ocean turtle ’s backtalk ?
ocean turtleneck are dear puppet , often portrayed as gentle and position - back in democratic culture , but the mouths of sea turtles , especially leatherback , reveal a much more bloodcurdling side . Unlike land turtles , sea polo-neck like the mighty leatherback turtle have sharp , spiny social system called papillae lining their pharynx that count like something out of a revulsion picture show .
RedditThe mouths of leatherback sea turtles as well as loggerheads and green sea turtles are lined with spikes that allow them to feast on hundreds of jellyfish per day.
While these spike inside sea turtles ’ mouths are n’t tooth , they do play a essential role in helping them carry onto food in the piddle and safely eat up dangerous fair game like man-of-war . The papillae expand all the way down a sea turtle ’s gorge , preventing food for thought from escaping when pee rush into their mouths .
PixabayA loggerhead sea turtleneck swimming in the ocean .
Though these structures in leatherback turtle ocean turtles ’ mouths are a full of life adaptation , they ca n’t protect them from their biggest scourge : ocean pollution . Necropsies conducted by scientists have not only revealed the eery papilla of sea turtleneck , but also the impact of plastic pollution . point like balloon sherd , plastic bags , and lobster claw bands mix with their born diet of jellyfish and ocean plants , vex a serious risk to ocean turtles ’ wellness and survival .
PixabayA loggerhead sea turtle swimming in the ocean.
These necropsies have not only shocked the mankind with their horrifying image , but also revealed how human activity is endangering sea polo-neck — founder us a perfect admonisher of the pressing want to address the defilement crisis in the populace ’s ocean . Turns out the insides of sea turtle ’ rima oris are disturb in more ways than one .
Why Are The Mouths Of Leatherback Sea Turtles So Bizarrely Terrifying — And How Do They Work?
Wikimedia CommonsThe heavy papillae that line a leatherback sea polo-neck ’s mouth , as pictured during a necropsy .
ocean turtle species like leatherbacks , loggerheads , and green sea turtles , contain spikes in their esophagus telephone papillae , and though they ’re as sharp as they wait , they ’re not tooth .
Their primary purpose is to move food from the sea turtle ’s mouth through its digestive organization — which means that thresher - like tract extends all the way through a polo-neck ’s esophagus , past its tummy , and to its rear . In a full ripe leatherback , one of the world ’s largest turtle mintage , that ’s eight whole feet of slimy skewer to debate with .
Wikimedia CommonsThe hard papillae that line a leatherback sea turtle’s mouth, as pictured during a necropsy.
Why the spines ? domain turtles , after all , do n’t have an arsenal in their throats ; they ’re able to use esophageal muscles to move their food , just like humankind do .
PixabayThe mouth of a snapping polo-neck — a land turtle who does n’t need the papillae that run along many ocean turtles ’ throats .
The trouble is that ocean polo-neck do n’t have the luxury of swallowing their nutrient on juiceless land . Every time a sea turtle opens its lip , water gushes in — and teem out , carrying any loose detritus with it , including the sea polo-neck ’s last repast .
PixabayThe mouth of a snapping turtle — a land turtle who doesn’t need the papillae that line many sea turtles’ throats.
Or it would , if the food were n’t tucked safely between the penetrating papillae , tardily act deeply and deeply into the polo-neck ’s digestive scheme .
Natural History Museum / YouTubeThe papillae that describe the mouth of the leatherback turtle ocean turtle .
The spines inside a ocean turtleneck ’s mouth also protect it from unsafe quarry ; jellyfish are the leathery turtle ’s favorite snack , and it ’s imperative that the turtle ’s insides are shield from bunko by the hard spike .
Natural History Museum/YouTubeThe papillae that line the mouth of the leatherback sea turtle.
So once jellyfish , crustaceans , and ocean grasses go in , they do n’t come back out . That is , not unless the turtle ends up on the operating table .
How Sea Turtles’ Mouths Reveal The Grave Threats They Face
NOAA FisheriesResearchers scrunch up next to a leatherback sea turtle .
Laura Castanon , a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute ( WHOI ) , took a scandalous TV during a post - mortem examination of a loggerhead sea turtleneck , a large - manoeuvre , intemperately - trounce coinage that typically reaches two to three feet in length .
Castanon was investigating how modest temperatures touch on the loggerhead turtle ’s inner reed organ , but the WHOI’sturtle dissection — a hebdomadary occurrence — pull a stove of peculiar scientists and undergrads , and not just because of the sea turtle ’ mouths .
NOAA FisheriesResearchers crouched next to a leatherback sea turtle.
A post shared by Laura C. ( @la_castanon )
Their subjects are ocean turtles who did n’t make it , despite the best campaign of the volunteers who regularly comb wintertime Massachusetts beaches in lookup of stale - stunned creature . Cape Cod typically see around 600 stranded turtles every year , a upshot of the migrating turtle ’ difficulty navigating the inlet .
Instead of continuing south to warmer waters , the sea turtles get confused while compass the bay laurel and fare to rest instead in savagely cold Atlantic currents . Their systems shut down as they ’re storm to the shoring — where volunteers are quick to perform turtle triage .
Coast Guard Compass Archive / Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler McGuinnessThe Coast Guard releases a sea turtle into the Atlantic Ocean in 2017.
Many polo-neck are successfully revived , rehabilitated , and released after a while in the ardent amnionic fluid of the nearby New England Aquarium .
But where rescuers fail , science measure in to learn what it can from the bodies — always hope that the polo-neck postmortem examination will run to good information about the threats endangered sea turtle nerve .
Coast Guard Compass Archive / Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler McGuinnessThe Coast Guard releases a sea turtleneck into the Atlantic Ocean in 2017 .
Unsurprisingly , human beings outrank among the gravest hazards .
The ocean turtle ’ oral fissure and setaceous digestive pathway tell a sad story . In between shreds of ocean plants , opus of jellyfish , and escargot flake are plastic fragments : torn balloon , the band from commercial lobster claws , and scraps of shopping bags .
The dissection teams at WHOI know what ’s really scary about the mouths of ocean turtle : the grounds they curb of an increasingly shaping ocean — a risk to ocean life everywhere .
The growing problem of ocean pollution presents a newfangled challenge that even these ancient creatures are n’t equip to handle . As plastic infiltrates their diet , the disturbing truth revealed by necropsies is a monitor that the fight to protect sea turtles — and the marine ecosystem as a whole — is far from over .
After this feel into the lip of the leatherback sea polo-neck , see some of thescariest sea creatureson Earth . Then , read up on the fear of the sea known asthalassophobia .
