The Leatherback turtle is distinguished from other turtles by the rubbery texture of its shell. All other sea turtles have bony plated shells. Leatherbacks are mostly black with scattered white markings. The Leatherback is the largest sea turtle in the world. The largest recorded Leatherback weighed almost 1,000 kilograms, and was an astonishing 3 metres long.
Leatherback turtles have healthy appetites every day they eat twice their own body weight in food.
The Leatherback's main diet is jellyfish. They also eat seaweed, mollusks, and smaller fish. Although they are air-breathing animals that are born on land, Leatherbacks spend most of their lives in the ocean. Each spring, female Leatherback turtles return to land to lay their eggs. The female Leatherback digs a hole in the sand with her back flippers, lays about sixty eggs, and then covers the nest with sand.