22 August 2009

Leatherback sea turtle's mouth



Interesting. I presume the (?cartilaginous) tooth-like projections point inward to keep prey from wiggling back out of the mouth. They obviously aren't for mastication. I've never seen this before. Thanks, Bits and Pieces.

21 comments:

  1. The tooth-like things are meant to dismember /cut up their prey. They feed mostly on jellyfishes, hence the "fishbone-like" structures in the oesophagus.

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  2. Just yesterday, I was reading about the fictional Sarlacc from Star Wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarlacc)

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  3. @Titam - interesting. I suppose if they were only needed to secure the prey, they wouldn't need so many of them.

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  4. Really neat! So they slice them up as they go down...I wonder how far down the "teeth" continue...
    also, I wonder how much nutrition you get from a jellyfish.

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  5. The spikes aren't really meant to dismember/cut up prey, I think it's mostly a mechanism to prevent the slimy, slippery things they feed on (jellyfish, mainly) from constantly getting out of their mouth/throat. Hence them pointing backwards.

    "A leatherback's mouth and throat also have backward-pointing spines that help retain such gelatinous prey."

    Source:http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/leatherback.htm

    The esophagus of a leatherback turtle also has very long, downward-pointing spikes on it. Click the link above to see a picture.

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  6. Grr. To make it easier, here's the link in a tinyurl form: http://tinyurl.com/5zalrv

    Oh, and linty: Jellyfish are not nutritious at all, but unfortunately I can't be more specific than that.

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    1. how do you even know that jellyfish aren't nutricious

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    2. jellyfish have a high amount of protein and copper proven fact

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  7. ok last comment today, I promise: This article, which I guess most of you won't be able to access, says that the spines are NOT cartilaginous, but do have a surface layer of "heavily keratinized" tissue. I gather that they're somewhat pliable, but also kind of stiff. It also says that "the posterior orientation of the papillae suggests that they might function in food ingestion or limiting the regurgitation of food from the stomach due to changes in pressure while diving"

    I'm guessing the former is more likely, otherwise they wouldn't have the spikes all the way up to the mouth. By the time the regurgitated food is on the mouth, those spikes probably wouldn't help much.

    Anyway, here's the article:

    http://www.jstor.org/stable/1565310

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  8. @Anonymous - thank you for finding those links. Wish you would sign your comments so I can recognize your contributions in the future.

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  9. Here's the nutritional data for jellyfish -

    http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/7703/2

    "The good: This food is a good source of Protein and Copper, and a very good source of Iron and Selenium.

    The bad: This food is very high in Sodium."

    I guess that info qualifies at TYWKIWDBI...

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  10. Minnesotastan- I tend to like posting as anonymous because other people view each of my comments as a separate entity and start out being neutral about them. That way they read my posts with more of an open mind. Readers don't just skip my comments because they hate me, nor do they simply rely on my perceived authority on these matters and unquestioningly accept everything I have to say. By posting anonymously, it forces me to actually go out and find sources each time so that people take me seriously.

    Then again, I do have a somewhat recognizable posting style and I can get lazy sometimes, but that's the theory behind it.

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  11. Minnesotastan - Are you serious? Really? Because I find it hard to believe that SALTED jelly fish would be high in sodium. Absolutely ludicrous...

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  12. @DubyaD, it was a link he found it on. Therefore, don't give him such criticism.

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  13. ok does anyone know why there is blood on the mouth?

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  14. I'm assuming because the turtle is dead.

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  15. There's blood in the mouth because this turtle was found washed up dead on a beach and then was then dissected for the TV show Inside Nature's Giants.

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