Summary: <p>This week we’re going to find out about the biggest turtles that ever lived! Spoiler: one of them is alive right now, swimming around eating jellyfish.</p> <p>A green sea turtle. These guys are adorable:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-712" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/reptile_green-sea-turtle_600x300-300x150.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="150"></p> <p>A hawkbill glowing like a neon sign!</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-711" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/neon-sea-turtle-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169"></p> <p>The majestic and enormous leatherback:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-713" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Leatherback-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199"></p> <p>Bebe leatherback. LET ME GOW</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-714" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/leatherback-baby2-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225"></p> <p>Seriously, how are baby sea turtles so darn cute?</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-715" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/bebe-300x298.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="298"></p> <p>Archelon was a big tortle:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-716" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/archelon.jpg" alt="" width="276" height="183"></p> <p><strong>Further reading:</strong></p> <p>This is a link to a pdf of that “<a href="http://ijms.nmdl.org/article/download/17321/11217">Historicity of Sea Turtles Misidentified as Sea Monsters</a>” article</p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>This week we’re back in the sea, but not the deep sea this time, because we’re looking at marine turtles!</p> <p>The oldest known turtle ancestor lived around 220 million years ago, but it wouldn’t have looked a whole lot like a modern turtle. For one thing, it had teeth instead of a bill. It resembled a lizard with wide ribs that protected its belly. It lived in the ocean, probably in shallow inlets and bays, but it may have also spent part of its time on land. Some researchers think it may have had at least a partial shell formed</p>
