Steve Sutton
Well-known member
for Loggerheads and Greens....
Since you will almost assuredly never see a plastron I would think the carapace would be of most value in identification......
two important things to look at.....
First-the "nuchal" scute....(see diagram).....if the scute is long and contacts ONLY the first vertebral scute, (the ones on top of the shell), then its a Loggerhead....if is short and the first dorsal scute contacts the marginal scutes on either side of the nuchal then its a Green...
Second-if you have time to count them, (as in the pictures that Jeff posted), which hopefully is rare since that likely means they are in distress, then Loogerheads will have (5) or more Coastal Scutes. Greens will have (4).
You can see all of those in the diagram below...
the plastrons are different as well but since I have never seen a Turtle swimming upside down and since if I have a chance to see the plastron I'm also going to be able to see the more easily identifiable traits of the carapaces I'll just post the diagram without comment...
Several other "keys" to identification.....
Green Turtle shells are rounder than Loggerehads which look distinctly "shield" like in shape......
Green Turtles have ONE nail on the front flipper...Loggerheads have TWO..
In small to medium sized Loggerheads the vetebral scutes will be "raised" on the leading edge, like little peaks or a miniature mtn range....Green Turtle vetebrals are always smooth....
Loggerheads have two pairs of large pre-frontal scales on top of the head between the eyes and the nostrils.....Greens have one elongated pair of pre-frontale scales....the difference is distinct and one of the easiest ways to tell the two apart if you encounter one that is swimming, (like the one we saw while Snook fishing)....
Look at the pictures in Jeff's post on the Turtle rescue...all of the above "identifiers" are present in those pictures....not all of them in all pictures but at least "one" in eac of them which is all you need, and usually all you get if the Turtle is healthy, to identify them...
Steve
Since you will almost assuredly never see a plastron I would think the carapace would be of most value in identification......
two important things to look at.....
First-the "nuchal" scute....(see diagram).....if the scute is long and contacts ONLY the first vertebral scute, (the ones on top of the shell), then its a Loggerhead....if is short and the first dorsal scute contacts the marginal scutes on either side of the nuchal then its a Green...
Second-if you have time to count them, (as in the pictures that Jeff posted), which hopefully is rare since that likely means they are in distress, then Loogerheads will have (5) or more Coastal Scutes. Greens will have (4).
You can see all of those in the diagram below...
the plastrons are different as well but since I have never seen a Turtle swimming upside down and since if I have a chance to see the plastron I'm also going to be able to see the more easily identifiable traits of the carapaces I'll just post the diagram without comment...
Several other "keys" to identification.....
Green Turtle shells are rounder than Loggerehads which look distinctly "shield" like in shape......
Green Turtles have ONE nail on the front flipper...Loggerheads have TWO..
In small to medium sized Loggerheads the vetebral scutes will be "raised" on the leading edge, like little peaks or a miniature mtn range....Green Turtle vetebrals are always smooth....
Loggerheads have two pairs of large pre-frontal scales on top of the head between the eyes and the nostrils.....Greens have one elongated pair of pre-frontale scales....the difference is distinct and one of the easiest ways to tell the two apart if you encounter one that is swimming, (like the one we saw while Snook fishing)....
Look at the pictures in Jeff's post on the Turtle rescue...all of the above "identifiers" are present in those pictures....not all of them in all pictures but at least "one" in eac of them which is all you need, and usually all you get if the Turtle is healthy, to identify them...
Steve
