The neck is short and incompletely retractile. The temporal region of the skull is completely roofed over above and laterally by the parietals, postfrontals, squamosals, quadrato-jugals and jugals. All these bones are much expanded, and form the additional or false roof. The parietals are especially large, and are in broad contact with the squamosals. Nasals are absent. The nares are bordered by the small premaxillaries, the maxillaries, and the prefrontals. The choanae are enclosed by the palatines, which are separated by the vomer, and are posteriorly in broad contact with the pterygoids. The latter are connected with descending processes of the parietals by epipterygoids. The foramen magnum is bounded not only by the supra-occipital and the lateral occipitals, but also by the basi-occipital. For the skeleton see Fig. 65, p. [320]. The pubic and ischiadic symphyses are connected by a narrow cartilaginous band. The pubis has a large, broad, lateral process, but the ischium is devoid of such a process. The paddles of the fore- and hind-limbs are produced by an elongation of the metacarpal and metatarsal bones and of most of the phalanges, and these have no condyles; most of the carpal and tarsal elements are flattened, and additional width is given to the hands by the much enlarged pisiform bone. The number of phalanges of the five fingers is 2, 3, 3, 2, 2; that of the five toes, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2.
Fig. 84.–Skull of Thalassochelys caretta; cf. also Fig. 63, p. [317]. A, Dorsal view; B, ventral view; F, frontal; Jg, jugal; Mx, maxillary; Op, opisthotic; P, parietal; Pal, palatine; Pr.f, prefrontal; Pt.f, postfrontal; Ptg, pterygoid; Q, quadrate; Quadr, articular surface of quadrate; Qj, quadrato-jugal; S.o, supra-occipital; Sq, squamosal.
The carapace is heart-shaped and very flat. The nuchal plate has no rib-like processes. The eight neurals form a continuous series, and the short tail is covered by two or three pygal plates besides the unpaired last marginal. The number of all the marginals is 23, sometimes 25 individually. The plastron (Fig. 66, p. [321]) is composed of the usual nine plates, which, however, remain entirely free from the marginals, and are only loosely connected with each other, enclosing a very large unossified space. The horny shields covering the plastron number 13, and there is a series of about 5 inframarginals (Fig. 61, 6, p. [315]). There are normally 12 pairs of marginal shields, a nuchal, 5 neural, and 5 or 7 costal shields. Whilst the number of these dorsal shields is pretty constant in Chelone, it is subject to an astonishing amount of individual variation in Thalassochelys.
The Chelonidae are a highly specialised offshoot of the Cryptodira adapted to marine life. Fundamentally they agree most with the Testudinidae, paradoxical as this may appear at first sight. There is nothing primitive about them except the complete series of inframarginal shields. Fossil forerunners of marine turtle-like creatures appear in the Upper Jurassic deposits of Europe and North America. The numerous genera have been grouped together as Thalassemydidae and Chelonemydidae. They are more or less intermediate between Chelonidae and Emys-like Testudinidae, the carapace being not too much flattened and broadened out, the fontanelles between the ribs are mostly small, the plastral bones are still broad, enclose a smaller ossified space, and there is still a bony bridge in most cases. The paddle-shape of the limbs is less pronounced, and sometimes only indicated. In some forms, especially Lytoloma, from the Upper Cretaceous and Eocene of North America and Europe, the anterior portion of the skull is much longer than in the Chelonidae, the vomer and the premaxillaries are elongated, and the anterior portion of the roof of the mouth, with the corresponding parts of the lower jaw, seems to have carried crushing pads. Some of the best-known Upper Jurassic genera are Eurysternum and Idiochelys; Plesiochelys from the Purbeck and Wealden; Allopleuron hofmanni from the Upper Cretaceous of Belgium approaches Chelone by the large fontanelles between the small marginal and the short costal plates. True Chelonidae are very rare and imperfect in the Mid-Tertiary strata, but both recent genera seem to have existed since Pliocene times.
The few recent Chelonidae are entirely marine, going on land only in order to deposit their eggs in the sands of unfrequented shores. Their distribution, in conformity with their oceanic life, is almost cosmopolitan within the warmer zones, but not a few find their way far into the temperate seas. They are all eagerly hunted by man either for food or for the sake of the tortoiseshell.
Chelone.–With only four pairs of costal shields. Carapace with large persisting fontanelles between the costal and marginal plates. Two species.
Ch. mydas (the "Green or Edible Turtle"), has when adult a nearly smooth shell, all the shields being juxtaposed, fitting closely into each other, and becoming quite smooth with age. The neural shields of younger specimens have a feeble keel. The twenty-five shields which surround the carapace form a smooth, or but indistinctly serrated rim. The head is covered with one pair of prefrontal shields, the others are small. The horny beaks of the upper and lower jaws have denticulated outer edges, those of the upper jaw having two pairs of strong denticulated ridges. The limbs have generally only one claw, namely on the first digit. This claw, although sometimes curved and thick, and more than an inch in length, is blunt. The general colour is olive or brown above, with yellowish spots or blotches; the under parts are pale yellowish. This species attains a large size, with a length of shell of nearly four feet, but the usual length of full-grown specimens is three feet, and these weigh, when in good condition, more than three hundredweight. Their home is in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, but there are certain regions in which they are more common than in others. Famous centres are the Island of Ascension, the West Indies, and the coast of Mosquito, at least for commercial purposes. As they require sandy, easily accessible beaches for the deposition of their eggs, they congregate in certain parts of the world more than in others, and being strictly vegetable feeders, they are naturally bound to the coasts, although they are sometimes met with far out at sea. Their chief food consists of algae, and of Zostera marina, the edible "Dulce," which grows plentifully in the lagoons of the coast of Florida. When they have eaten their fill, they are said to chop off more of these plants, and roll them, together with the adherent mud, into balls of the size of a head, and these balls, receding with the tide, are followed by the Turtles.
Whilst in the water they are caught in various ways, with nets or harpoons. In some parts of the world the natives follow them in a boat, and when they espy a turtle crawling along the bottom, a man, attached to a rope, dives in, clasps it, and is brought up by his companions together with his prey. Turtles are fond of basking asleep, floating on the surface, and they are then harpooned from a stealthily approaching boat. The most original mode of catching them is that used by the natives of Torres Straits, Madagascar, and Cuba. The turtle-fishers go out in the boat to a spot frequented by grazing turtles; a long string is tied to the tail of a fish, Echeneis, a member of the Mackerel family, and the Echeneis, anxious to get away to protective shelter, makes for a turtle, and attaches itself to the turtle's plastron by means of the large sucking apparatus on the top of its head and neck-region. The men are guided by the string, and the turtle is gently coaxed up towards the surface or followed into shallow water, where it is either harpooned or dived for. It is curious that this use of the Echeneis exists in such widely separated parts of the world, the natives of which cannot have any knowledge of each other. These modes of catching turtles are sportsman-like, but the greatest and most wanton destruction is practised at their breeding places. In conformity with the wide distribution of these creatures, the time of breeding is not the same everywhere. In the West Indian region, and in the Straits of Malacca, it falls within the period of April to June; on the coast of West Africa it occurs from September to January. The females come to their breeding places from afar, reconnoitre the beach carefully, are extremely wary and shy, taking alarm at the slightest disturbance, and at last crawl on land. Well out of the reach of the tide the female scoops out a hole in the sand, deposits about one hundred or more of its round, rather parchment-shelled eggs, covers the nest carefully, obliterating all traces of the dug-out sand, and makes again for the sea by another route. At least they are said to make a sort of circuitous route so that nobody can tell the position of the nest, which may be anywhere beneath the broad trail left by the heavy creature on its way from and back to the sea. The nest is discovered by probing the sand with sticks. The time of incubation is not known, but according to Agassiz, lasts at least seven weeks.
