Pacific bat turtle

Pacific bat turtle (Pteromedusa velonectes) differs from the Atlantic congener in smaller size: the length of the adult reptile exceeds 5 meters seldom, and usually exceeds 4 meters only a little. At this reptile colouring of body is gray-blue without dark spots. Sometimes the reptile gets an appreciable greenish shade because of symbiotic green algae settling on its skin. Forward flippers of this turtle are narrower, and back ones are more lengthened, rather than at the Atlantic species. This turtle swims faster, than the Atlantic species. It also differs in greater aggression, and frequently attacks the enemy: some sharkodiles have deep scars on a body, and sometimes the tip of the flipper at them appears bitten off – these are traces of counterattacks of turtles of this species. Pacific bat turtle eats mainly pelagic invertebrates – jellyfishes and gardenersalpas. It breeds at Hawaii, swims upstream in rivers and lays eggs in soft forest ground.