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The leatherback turtle is a very large turtle and can grow to a length of 3m. It is usually a uniform dark brown or black above, sometimes with paler marbling or with longitudinal rows of small, fine dots and usually with pale white, pink or cream spots and blotches on the sides. The throat and lower sides of neck are white, pale cream or pink mottled and blotched with dark brown or black and whitish or pinkish-white below. The hatchlings are finely beaded in appearance. The adult shell is covered by a thick, smooth, leathery skin, often pitted and pock-marked in older specimens. A series of seven prominent longitudinal ridges occur on the carapace (including the outer lateral pair) and four ridges along the plastron.
The leatherback turtle has the widest distribution of any marine turtle, occurring from the North Sea and Gulf of Alaska in the Northern Hemisphere, to Chile and New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere. Leatherback turtles occur in tropical and temperate waters of Australia.
Breeding in Australia occurs mostly during December and January. Females lay on average about 83 large eggs and 47 small yolkless eggs.
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