Is This The Most Amazing Animal On Earth? The Ancient Leatherback

Though most people have never heard of it the leatherback sea turtle could be the most amazing animal on the planet. Today there are only six remaining species of marine turtle, and long, long ago its predecessors had four legs and lived on land. About a hundred ten million years ago, its legs and feet evolved into flippers sometimes reaching nine feet in length and it began to populate the Seven Seas, before there were Seven Seas.

The planet looked—and was—very different then. Everest was not the highest mountain in the world because it would not even become a mountain for another 65 million years. Australia was still virtually joined to Antarctica and both were nearly touching Africa when the earliest leatherbacks moved into the sea. This was so far in the past that Antarctica was still warm and not covered by hundreds of feet of ice. South America was moving westward as the earth’s underwater techtonic plates shifted, away from the the coast of Antarctica. A young ocean was forming between the separating continents. You know it as the Atlantic Ocean. This very ancient time produced these very ancient turtles.

When the relatives of today’s leatherbacks turned to the ocean, there were no birds in the sky, no elephants, mastodons, mammoths, and not even a tiny mouse because there were no mammals at all on the globet. The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex would not terrorize the planet for about four hundred thousand centuries more. Yes, that is right: 400,000 centuries.

Perhaps you learned in science class that whales and dolphins were animals that once lived on land and moved to the water. But, whales and their cousins, the porpoises are mammals (whose closest relative is the hippo) that did not exist until millions of years after the last dinosaur passed away. Sea turtles had already made the transition from land to sea for fifty million years before these mighty mammalian leviathans first left land for the water.

Of the six sea turtle species still in existence, these are by far the grandest. They sometimes weigh nearly a ton. A few years ago one caught off the British Isles near Wales tipped the scales at 1,980 pounds. And, despite its impressive size, this ocean traveling reptile lived through the terrible and extraordinary catastrophic extinction that killed nearly every animal on earth. One of the most resilient and oldest animals on the face of the globe, it is clearly qualified for the “most amazing animal” award but there is more to this animal—much more.

Consider its athletecism. As a swimmer, how does the lugubrious leatherback rate against, say, Michael Phelps. Phelps is the fastest swimmer in the world and holds the 200 meter freestyle world record. But, suppose he had compete in that race against a leatherback. Without a doubt Phelps would be sleeker and trimmer and the turtle would have to drag through the water about 1,800 more pounds (sort of like a handicap for a race horse). Now, imagine that the spectacular Phelps swam the race of his life and set another world record at 200 meters. And where would the turtle be? Oh, yea. It would be off in the distance some 800 meters ahead, having left Michael in its wake. This turtle can swim 1,000 meters in the same time Phelps swims just 200. The extraordinary shelled athlete is in the 1992 Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest reptile on earth! And, incredibly, a leatherback swims at nearly the same speed as the world’s fastest man can run—in the short 100 yard dash! Impressed yet?

Not only does this ancient being swim five times faster than the fastest human on earth, it may be the world’s greatest long-distance traveler. One of these giants was tracked migrating 13,000 miles—and that was only to the destination from which it needed to return.

In addition to being the world’s fastest reptile and maybe the world’s greatest long-distance migrator, it is the deepest diving sea turtle on the planet, regularly diving some 4,000 feet underwater. For perspective, America’s extraordinary nuclear submarines are estimated to have a maximum normal operating depth of 1,600 feet because they would crush under the pressure at about 2,400 feet. Man’s best technology and strongest metal and composite materials are no match for the diving ability of this ancient reptile.

You are probably not surprised to hear that leatherbacks swim all the tropical and subtropical waters on earth. But, north to the Arctic Circle? And south of New Zealand where waters are 40 degrees fahrenheit? These astounding animals, even though they are cold blooded, have a metabolic rate four times faster than other sea turtles and a unique internal heat-producing device that keeps their body temperature as much as 32 degrees higher than the surrounding water. The water outside its shell may be a frigid 40 but inside this grand turtle is enjoying a cozy 72 degrees. If you are a scuba diver, think of it like the world’s first wet suit.

Unfortunately, in the last 30 years, man’s destructive capacity and willingness to do so have decimated the numbers of this magnificent creature. Between 1980 and 2005, the number of leatherback sea turtles in Mexico declined 99%, a catastrophe for this species since that country had about two thirds of the world’s total leatherbacks. Mexico should not be singled out because, all across the globe, were collapsing.

Today, more than 100 countries and hundreds of conservation groups are fighting to stem the decline of this magnificent being but it remains to be seen if this most ancient of all creatures can survive my generation.

Costa Rica is home to all but one of the world’s marine turtle species and has set aside important reserves on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. And, Costa Rica ecotourism is playing an increasingly important role in conserving sea turtles. On its Caribbean coast is Tortuguero, the world’s biggest and most important green sea turtle nesting preserve. The Pacific coast has Ostional Refuge that has the planet’s largest arribadas—mass nestings of hundreds of thousands of olive ridley turtles. Either of these places are great for looking for leatherbacks, too.