The Deep Sea Specialist

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The leatherback is the most massive living reptile. The largest individual ever recorded weighed over 2,000 pounds.

Unlike other sea turtles, the leatherback spends its entire life in deep water except to come ashore to lay eggs. After being hatched on shore the leatherback heads for the sea. If leatherbacks are like other sea turtles, the hatchlings won't return to land for between 20 and 50 years to lay their first eggs. At egg laying time the female comes ashore at night, digs a nest in the sand and lays her eggs. When she is finished, she covers them and returns to the water. Ten days later she will return and lay another nest of eggs. She may do this up to eleven times during one season. The average female will lay 120 pounds of eggs in one season.

The leatherback's favorite food is jellyfish. The eating equipment of the leatherback is perfectly designed to eat jellyfish. The sharp, cusp-like fangs on its jaw interlock in just the right way to enable it to eat bites out of jellyfish that are as large as three feet across. Its digestive track lacks a well-defined stomach. Digestion is best done in the small intestine because jellyfish are mostly water.

The leatherback turtle has been referred to by scientists as an ocean specialist. That praises the Creator, whether or not researchers realize it.