Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 21, 2016

Facts About Sea Turtles

Sea turtles, also called marine turtles, look like regular turtles, but have flippers instead of legs. They have been on Earth for more than 100 million years, according to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF). This makes them one of the oldest animal families on the planet. SizeThere are seven species...

Nov 8, 2016

Photos: Ancient Sea Turtle Discovered Along Angolan Coast

Ancient links (Image credit: Timothy Myers)About 64 million years ago, a sea turtle with a triangular-shaped head swam along the arid coastline of what is now Angola. The creature likely crunched on hard-shelled animals, such as crabs and lobsters, with its extra-long palate — the roof of its mouth. The...

Mar 6, 2017

Sea Turtle Named Bank Had 915 Coins Removed from Stomach

Editor's Note:After undergoing surgery to remove 915 coins from her stomach, Bank the sea turtle died from blood poisoning on March 21. Read the full story. A sea turtle in Thailand had to undergo an operation to remove 915 coins from its stomach, after it swallowed the loose change visitors...

Mar 22, 2017

Sea Turtle 'Bank' Dies After 915 Coins Removed from Stomach

After undergoing surgery two weeks ago to remove 915 coins from her stomach, a sea turtle nicknamed Bank died due to complications, according to news reports. In Thailand, tourists throw coins at turtles due to a superstition that the activity brings longevity and good fortune. Bank swallowed the loose change...

Mar 27, 2017

Reel Threat: How Recreational Fishing Endangers Freshwater Turtles

Swallowed fishhooks are a deadly threat to freshwater turtles, and until now, this danger was largely unexplored. A new study, however, finds that in some species, the likelihood of a turtle dying from a swallowed fishhook is as high as 11 percent, and that the frequency of turtle deaths from...

May 16, 2017

Turtle Triumph: Nine New Cambodian Royal Turtles Hatch

Cambodia's national reptile is on the brink of extinction, but there may be new hope for the reptiles after nine Cambodian Royal Turtle babies were successfully hatched, conservationists recently announced. The Royal Turtle, also known as the southern river terrapin (Batagur affinis), is one of the world's most endangered freshwater...

Jun 21, 2017

Watch: The Mysterious Graveyard Where Turtles Go to Die

A new documentary reveals some of the most awe-inspiring and mysterious parts of the Pacific Ocean. Big Pacific, which airs tonight (June 21) at 8 p.m. ET on PBS, will show viewers some of the wonders found beneath the waves of the biggest ocean on Earth. One of them is...

Jun 29, 2017

Why Scientists Are Growing Herpes-Ridden Turtle Skin in the Lab

Dr. Frankenstein, eat your heart out: Scientists have grown the pebbly green skin of sea turtles in the lab for the first time ever. In fact, it's the first time anyone has ever grown reptile skin in a laboratory, period. The reason? Researchers are trying to understand the behavior of...

Jul 25, 2017

For Some Turtles, Science Is a Real Turn-On

When scientists collect or observe animals in the wild, it sometimes can be extremely challenging to identify their sex. But a group of researchers recently found an innovative and relatively simple way to determine the sex of turtles in the field, coaxing reluctant males into, um, revealing themselves, through the...

Oct 20, 2017

54-Million-Year-Old Baby Sea Turtle Had Built-In Sunscreen

An extraordinarily well-preserved fossil of a baby sea turtle that lived 54 million years ago contains traces of dark pigments that would have acted as built-in sunscreen, protecting the animal from the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The specimen, which is among the best-preserved fossils of sea turtles in the...

Nov 25, 2017

The Secret to Turtle Hibernation: Butt-Breathing

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. To breathe or not to breathe, that is the question. What would happen if you were submerged in a pond where the water temperature hovered just above freezing and...

Apr 16, 2018

Punk-Rock Turtle Has 'Green Hair,' Will Probably Die Alone

The Mary River turtle doesn't take its name from '80s alt-rock icons The Jesus and Mary Chain, though we wouldn't fault you for the guess. With whisker-like growths forking out of its chin and shocks of algae bursting off of its head like a punky green mohawk, the freshwater swimmer...

Aug 21, 2018

113 Dead Sea Turtles Washed Up on a Mexico Beach, and No One Knows Why

Over a period of less than three weeks, more than 100 endangered sea turtles washed up dead on an 18-mile (30 kilometers) stretch of beach on the Pacific coast of Mexico near Guatemala, and authorities aren't sure why. The mass mortality event began on July 24, when 26 dead turtles...

Sep 20, 2018

Rare Footage Shows Beautiful Orcas Toying with Helpless Sea Turtles

A small pod of orcas (Orcinus orca) near the Galápagos Islands was caught on camera as they pushed, spun and dragged sea turtles around as if the turtles were pool toys. Orcas are known to play with their food before eating, but this was likely the first time they've been...

Dec 3, 2018

How Butt Gas, Drugs and Amazing Memories Led to This Weird Turtle Photo

The ancient cosmologers were right and Galileo was wrong: This turtle's got the whole freaking world on its back. Live Science saw the above photo circulating on Twitter early last week and reached out to its originators — the good folks at Task Force Turtle — to get the full...