Posted on 01/08/2018 12:38:15 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Green sea turtles do not develop into males or females due to sex chromosomes, like humans and most other mammals do. Instead, the temperature outside a turtle egg influences the sex of the growing embryo. And this unusual biological quirk, scientists say, endangers their future in a warmer world.
Already, some sea turtle populations are so skewed by heat that the young reptiles are almost entirely female, according to a new report in the journal Current Biology.
“This is one of the most important conservation papers of the decade,” said biologist David Owens, a professor emeritus at the College of Charleston who was not a part of this research. It will not be long, perhaps within a few decades to a century, until “there will not be enough males in sea turtle populations,” he warned.
The sex of a green sea turtle is a result of its environment. “They have temperature-dependent sex determination,” said Camryn Allen, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration endocrinology researcher and co-author of the new study. “It’s not genetics. It’s actually the temperature.”
At what biologists call the pivot temperature, turtles hatch as a mixture of males and females. For green sea turtles, this temperature is 29.3 degrees Celsius (85 Fahrenheit). A few degrees below 29.3 C, all the sea turtles are born male. Heat up the eggs and only females are born.
“That transitional range, from 100 percent males to 100 percent females, spans a very narrow band of only a couple of degrees,” said NOAA marine biologist and study co-author Michael Jensen.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Exactly! They’ve been around 65 million years. The ice ages only began 5 million years ago. Prior to that the earth was much warmer than it is during the inter-glacial periods such as the one we’re in now. Sea turtles should have never existed to begin with by the logic of this genius marine biologist.
Back when I had two Russian tortoises, I was in a FB tortoise group.
Not a day went by that someone didn’t post the obligatory ‘turtle/tortoise humping inanimate object while making gross noises’ video.
Ick.
I wonder if Ben Guano with the WaPo knows that climate change is converting 50% of lesbians into heterosexual women?
5.56mm
Climate change will turn you female, no sex change required and the American tax payer is off the hook, call the prison system and military
In the world of dinosaurs, and giant swimming creatures, the temperatures were MUCH warmer. How did turtles ever come into being? In the Jurassic Period, the average temp was 13 degrees higher than today. How long have turtles been around? What was the temperature when life for them was perfect? How many millions of years ago was that?
This makes no sense. If temperature determines sex then how is there ever a balance of sexes?
Is that what happened to Bruce Jenner?
“Do you need a cigarette?” captioning too?
For an animal that has a lifespan measured in centuries, that is not catastrophic. In fact, that may be exactly how its life cycle is designed. Might want to study this for a few more centuries and see if a trend develops.
Hahahahaha! That is an awesome visual!
Heh, a “Moon-eyed box turtle”!
(BTW, I like box turtles...there is just something about them I like, probably capturing and keeping a bunch of them as a boy...:)
I like that post!
Sounds like male turtles have it made in the shade.
Fixed it.
So...are these “scientists” anti-female? Bigoted losers.
More females is good for increasing the sea turtle population - and great for the male sea turtles.
But hormones and birth control medication in water have nothing to do with it? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birth-control-in-water-supply/
I know it’s not seawater, but where do the rivers and sewers flow to, if not the sea?
I say, pick your favorite environmental scare idea and stick with it.
All but that.
Made me very glad mine were both girls.
None of that creepy crap going on.
Tell all the democrats to stop breathing for a few years and that should help turtles turn back into males.
Boy Sea Turtles Overjoyed ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.