Locomotion in marine Chelonia: Adaptation to the aquatic habitat

Abstract

Several modern turtles provide good examples of secondary adaptation to marine life. Occupation of an open aquatic environment has required morphological, physiological and behavioural changes driven by natural selection in response to new constraints. Evolution of enhanced aquatic mobility was a major requirement in this evolutionary line. This is evident in the use of the foreflippers as hydrofoils and in the modified coordination of the four limbs that are employed in swimming, but also on land, both in egg laying by females and in running to the surf line by hatchlings. To cope effectively with the environmental demands of diverse marine habitats, sea turtles have developed various life strategies related to differences in their locomotion patterns. These strategies are based on diet, neritic or pelagic life either in shallow waters of the continental shelves or in the surface waters of the open ocean, and the degree to which species engage in energy‐expensive breeding migrations. Differences in turtle structure, the functioning of their limbs and the coordination of their movements, both in swimming and in terrestrial locomotion, provide evidence from which an evolutionary explanation for the invasion of the sea by marine turtles can be derived.

Keywords:

• Locomotion
• Chelonia
• Marine turtles
• Adaptation
• Aquatic
• Marine environment

Notes

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