Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta)
The Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) is a sea turtle found in Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean coastlines, listed Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
- Common name
- Loggerhead Sea Turtle
- Scientific name
- Caretta caretta
- Conservation status (IUCN Red List)
- Vulnerable
- Habitat
- Atlantic, Pacific & Indian Ocean coastlines
- Edition
- TT-07: Reef Walker
Named for its massive head and jaw muscles that crush conchs like party favors. Uses Earth's magnetic field to navigate back to its home beach.
It is Turtle Tuesday edition TT-07, “Reef Walker”, drawn by hand and free to download.
This drawing is one of the 26 in Color the Shell, the Turtle Tuesday turtle coloring book: the same line art in black and white, with one true fact per turtle.
Named for its massive head. Uses it to house jaw muscles that crush conchs and horseshoe crabs like party favors. Eats things with hard shells because it can. Respects no shellfish. Big head energy, fully earned.
Strongest bite force of any sea turtle; those jaw muscles aren’t for show. They crack open conchs and horseshoe crabs like they’re tissue paper. But the wildest part of their story happens when they’re babies: after hatching, loggerhead newborns swim into open ocean and vanish for years. Scientists call it 'the lost years’ because nobody knew where they went. Turns out they ride ocean currents across entire oceans, sometimes for over a decade, before returning to coastal waters.
The Lost Years & the Magnetic Map
For decades, baby loggerheads simply disappeared into open ocean. Scientists called this gap ‘the lost years,’ and it haunted marine biologists for a generation.
We now know the babies ride massive ocean gyres: North Atlantic loggerheads born in Florida ride the Gulf Stream to the Azores and back, a circuit that can take 7 to 15 years.
Loggerheads also navigate by Earth’s magnetic field. Research by Kenneth Lohmann at UNC Chapel Hill showed hatchlings use magnetic inclination and intensity, a GPS built into the planet.
Key Moments
- 1960s to 1970s: Archie Carr’s research establishes the 'lost years’ mystery
- 1991: Satellite tracking reveals trans-Atlantic migration patterns of juveniles
- 2001: Kenneth Lohmann publishes landmark studies on magnetic navigation
- 2011: Loggerhead listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act
- 2020s: Genetic studies confirm nesting site fidelity
Fun Facts
- Jaw Breaker: Strongest bite force of any sea turtle
- Magnetic GPS: Hatchlings imprint on Earth’s magnetic field to navigate thousands of miles
- The Lost Years: Baby loggerheads vanish into open ocean for 7 to 15 years
- Beach Loyalty: Nesting females return within miles of their birth beach
- Menu: If it has a shell, it’s lunch: crabs, conchs, urchins, jellyfish
On the Red List
- Loggerheads lay more than 100,000 nests a year in the United States, NOAA Fisheries estimates.
Mini FAQ
How strong is the bite, really?
Estimated at around 500 pounds of force, roughly three times a human bite. They crack open horseshoe crabs like pistachio shells.
What are ‘the lost years’?
The 7-to-15-year gap between hatching and returning to nearshore waters.
How do they find their birth beach?
They imprint on its magnetic signature as hatchlings and navigate back by it decades later.
Art by Lee Eisenbarth, CC BY 4.0: how to use this art.
Sources: IUCN Red List, Wikipedia.