---
title: Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
scientific_name: Dermochelys coriacea
common_name: Leatherback Turtle
taxon: Sea turtles
conservation_status: VU - Vulnerable
published: 2023-12-31T18:20:13.728Z
updated: 2026-08-15T14:55:05.407Z
tags: Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, Sea turtles, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-turtles/leatherback-turtle
---

# Leatherback Turtle (*Dermochelys coriacea*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea turtles (*Chelonioidea*)
- **Size:** up to 2.6 m
- **Weight:** 650 kg
- **Depth:** 0-1250 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Very Rare
- **Habitat:** Open ocean; comes inshore only to nest
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric, Temperature-dependent sex
- **CITES:** Appendix I
- **Conservation status:** VU - Vulnerable

## How to recognise it

- no hard shell: a leathery ridged back, dark with pale spotting
- seven long ridges running the length of the carapace
- enormous front flippers, longer than in any other turtle
- length up to 2.6 m

The largest reptile in the sea: up to 2.6 m (8.5 ft) and 650 kg (1,430 lb), with no hard shell at all. The back is a leathery skin over a mosaic of small bones, ridged into seven long keels, and the front flippers are longer than in any other turtle.

It is warm in cold water. A leatherback holds its body temperature well above the sea around it using sheer size, a thick oil-saturated fat layer, counter-current heat exchangers in the flippers and the heat of constant swimming - which is why this tropical-nesting reptile can feed off Newfoundland and Norway, where any other sea turtle would die.

It eats jellyfish and nothing much else, which is an odd diet for an animal that size: the food is mostly water. It compensates by eating enormous quantities, and its throat is lined with backward-pointing spines that let jellyfish go down and nothing come back up. The same trap catches plastic bags, which is exactly why they kill.

It dives deeper than any other reptile, past 1,200 m, and crosses whole oceans between nesting beaches and feeding grounds. Its numbers have collapsed in the Pacific, and in this sea it is a very rare visitor rather than a resident.

## Also known as

- **English:** leatherback, leatherback sea turtle, leatherback turtle
- **Arabic:** سلحفاة المحيط جلدية الظهر, اللَّجأة جِلديّة الظَهْر, سلحفاة جلدية الظهر
- **Hebrew:** צב ים גילדי, צב גלדי
- **French:** tortue luth, Tortue luth (La)
- **Italian:** tartaruga liuto
- **German:** Lederschildkröte
- **Spanish:** tortuga laud, Dorso de Cuero, tortuga laúd
- **Greek:** Δερματοχελώνα
- **Turkish:** deri sırtlı deniz kaplumbağası, deri sirtli kaplumbaga, deri sırtlı kaplumbağa
- **Portuguese:** Careba-Gigante, Careba-Mole, Tartaruga-Gigante
- **Dutch:** Lederschildpad
- **Swedish:** havslädersköldpadda
- **Polish:** żółw skórzasty
- **Czech:** kožatka velká
- **Japanese:** オサガメ
- **Chinese:** 棱皮龜, 棱皮龟, 稜皮龜
- **Ukrainian:** Черепаха шкіряста, Шкіряста черепаха
- **Russian:** Кожистая черепаха
- **AF:** Leerrugseeskilpad, Leerskilpad, Reuseseeskilpad
- **BG:** kozhestа kostenurkа, Кожеста костенурка
- **CA:** Tortuga llaüt
- **CYM:** Crwban môr lledrgefn, Crwbanod Môr Cefn-Lledr, crwban môr cefn-lledr
- **DA:** Læderskildpadde
- **EPO:** Leddorsa martestudo
- **FI:** merinahkakilpikonna
- **GL:** Tartaruga de coiro
- **GLA:** turtar druim-leathair, turtaran druim-leathair
- **HR:** Sedmopruga usminjača
- **HU:** kérgesteknős
- **ID:** Penyu Belimbing
- **KO:** 장수거북
- **LT:** kietaodis vėžlys
- **MRI:** Honu
- **NNO:** havlêrskilpadde
- **NO:** havlærskilpadde
- **SL:** usnjača
- **SQI:** breshka e detit lëkurore
- **TAM:** ஏழுவரி ஆமை (அ) தோணி ஆமை, பேராமை
- **TH:** เต่ามะเฟือง, เต่าเหลี่ยม

## Scientific synonyms

- *Dermochelys coriacea schlegelii* (Garman, 1884)
- *Sphargis coriacea* (Vandelli, 1761)
- *Sphargis coriacea var. schlegelii* Garman, 1884
- *Testudo coriacea* Vandelli, 1761

## Range

Belgium, Gulf of Mexico, Ireland, Kenya, Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-turtles/leatherback-turtle)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*