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Green Sea Turtle Research Paper

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Modern Evolutionary Classification of a Green Sea Turtle Green Sea turtles are very small when they are born, but as they mature, they become the largest hard-shelled sea turtles. These turtles do are not named for having a green shell, but for having green skin. Their shell is a brown or olive color. The organisms that make up this species are usually herbivores, but are omnivores while they are young. They eat seaweed and other plants or algae found in the ocean. Green sea turtles have serrated jagged edged jaws, which they have adapted for a vegetarian diet made up of eating of seagrasses, plants, and algae found in the ocean. When the turtles are not born yet, they are in a nesting habitat. The mother buries her eggs in the sand along a beach. Once they hatch, they head for the ocean and live ocean habitats. The ocean is extremely salty, and can be dangerous to species who are have not adapted to that environment. Green sea turtles are unique to the ocean environment because they “...have a salt …show more content…

Derived characteristics are traits that separate the members of a clade apart from others. They show an organism's evolution from ancestors. The Green Sea Turtle’s Order is Testudines, while the other orders in its clade are Lepidosauria and Archosauria. All three of these Orders have a derived characteristic. Testudines species have a shell, like a turtle does, Lepidosauria had scales like a snake or crocodile, and Archosauria had diapsids, or openings on either side of the skull like a bird. According to hyperphysics.edu, “The Pennsylvanian Period saw the emergence of the first reptiles”(Geological Time Scale). The evolution of the shell, scales, and diapsids did not happen during the Pennsylvanian Period; however, they did happen during the Triassic period, which was about 245 million years ago. As time went on, evolution kept happening and further defined the different species in their

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