Sea Turtle Photos Loggerhead Turtle Depositing Eggs

Loggerhead Turtle
Depositing Eggs

Oviposition. After a sea turtle folds its flippers backwards, she will lay, on average, about 100 eggs. The eggs drop two or three at a time, along with considerable mucous, from the cloaca.

At this point almost nothing will stop a sea turtle from depositing its eggs, not even a marauding raccoon.

Sea turtle eggs are white and spherical, measuring from 40 to 60 mm in diameter. They also are soft and may appear slightly dented because they are not filled when initially laid. This dent disappears after a few days.

At first, the yolk of newly laid eggs consist mostly of water. At 10 days, the heart is beating and the eye is well advanced.

The growth of the eggs of a particular clutch is fairly uniform. Sunlight and weather are important factors in affecting growth. From 45 to 60 days is the normal incubation for Florida.

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