A turtles respiratory process starts with them taking in air through their external nares above their mouths. After the air enters the body it travels to the glottis and into the trachea. The trachea splits into two bronchi that deliver the air to the lungs. From there it is distributed through the body. It is often held in the body so the turtle can breath while under water. Sea turtles can also absorb oxygen from the water.

Respiration

circulation

The circulation in a sea turtle is surprisingly very simple. The blood travels through the heart, veins, arteries and capillaries. The only thing that sets sea turtles aside is that they have a 3 chambered heart. The heart is made up out of the left atrium, right atrium, and ventricle. The ventricle is separated by a partial septum. The deoxygenated blood flows through the right atrium. It then flows through the ventricle into the left atrium and is now oxygenated. The oxygenated blood then flows back into the ventricle then throughout the body.

Digestion

Sea Turtles have very strong digestive enzymes. These and their strong salivary glands help them to break down their food. They need these different things to help their digestion because they do very little chewing. Although their tongues are made of very strong muscles that help keep the food still in their mouths. Their strong digestive enzymes and stomach acids help to digest the food they've taken in. From there their food travels through their organs (esophagus, gall bladder, liver,stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and cloaca) and out of the body. It comes out as waste.

Most turtles are believed to be herbivores. That is not true. Sea turtles eat jellyfish and other soft bodied invertebrates. They often also eat many different plant species. These include algae, seaweed, moss, etc. Some species are ether purely herbivores, or omnivores. It is very common to see a more juvenile sea turtle to be purely omnivores until their stomachs and jaws develop and then they are able to eat soft bodied animals.

Nutrition

Food Getting

Sea turtles are not seen as hunters, but they really are. They hunt soft bodied animals. Often jelly fish. Their tongues are very strong thick muscles that help so that they can not feel the sting of the jelly fish. They also have serrated jaws that help them be able to chew plants easily. Their shells and limbs have also adapted over millions of years to help make them faster. This makes it so that they can attack their prey very fast.

Support

Sea turtles have both internal skeleton and external skeletons. Their external skeleton protects their internal organs and structures from predators. Their internal skeleton acts like a base for their muscles. Their flippers are also made from almost pure muscle. All their muscles are connected by cartilage.

Protection

The most obvious protection source for a turtle are their shells. Shells are used to protect the soft bodied sea turtles from their environments. In these different environments their are many different predators for sea turtles. Sea turtles would be very vulnerable creatures without their shells. These shells stop predators from being able to easily harm the sea turtle. Sea turtles also have a very sharp beak like structure on their upper and lower jaw. This is also to help defend themselves from predators and.

Movement

Sea turtles can move on land. They are born on land and go into the ocean after they hatch. While they are on land their movement is solely very little bird like strokes with their flippers. once they are in open water their flippers help them to easily glide through the water. An adaptation they have is that their shells are narrow and hydrodynamic. This allows them to get around quickly and easily under water.

Osmotic Regulation & Excretion

Sea turtles go through a long process of secretion to get the salt out of the water they take in to be able to use it in their bodies. They use their tear duct like salt glands to constantly empty the salt intake their bodies regulate. This is so that their is no shrinking or swelling of their cells. Green sea turtles especially excrete a large amount of urine which also helps get rid of their salt intake.

Temperature Regulation

Sea turtles are exothermic. This means that sea turtles regulate heat based on the temperature of their environment. Turtles also have a layer of brown adipose tissue that helps the body regulate heat. They are one of the only non mammal animals with this. They also go through gigantothermy which means that they are so big that their surface area to volume ration is very low. Making them warm up easily.

Reproduction

Reproduction of sea turtles happens on a yearly clock. Sea turtles are sexual reproducers. a group of sea turtles will almost sync up their pregnancies during nesting seasons. Sea turtles are oviparous. A nesting female sea turtle make multiple nests during one nesting season. An adaptation females have developed over time is if the temperature around the impregnated females is high it will cause the female to produce more females then males. Another adaptation of those females is that they can sense out where they hatched and nest there.

Development

Sea turtles are oviparous. This means that they stay in their eggs and go through complete and direct development. It takes 6 weeks to 2 months for the eggs to hatch. After that time they hatch as fully developed smaller versions of the adult sea turtles. They then journey into to the ocean water where they continue to grow and adapt to the environment around them. It will often take the sea turtle anywhere from 15-50 years to reach full maturity.

Mating Behaviors

When a male feels that it is time for the females nesting season to begin he will try to court the female by showings his interest. They will release pheromones The male will often nuzzle the front of the females head or nibble on the back of her neck or rear flippers. Since the males rarely ever go back to land it is important for them to find a mate to reproduce with before the females start their journey to land. If the female does not swim away from the male the male with grasp onto the female and grasps her top shell to get into mating position.