Marine Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals

1. Marine Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals

2. Reptiles • Class Reptilia • Includes sea turtles, sea snakes and marine lizards (Galapagos iguanas), marine crocodiles • Ectothermic (cold-blooded) • Breathe air with lungs • Covered in scales • Equipped with special salt glands to concentrate and excrete excess salts from body fluids • Almost all live in tropical or subtropical waters (except turtles)

3. Sea Turtles • Eight known marine species • Cannot retract head and tails like turtles on land • Adults have no natural predators except humans • Forelimbs have flippers for propulsion and hind limbs are like rudders for steering. • Green turtle is most common species • Eat marine algae, sea grass, and other plants.

4. Sea Turtles • Sea turtles have renowned navigation skills • Return every few years to the beach where they were born to lay eggs • Use the angle of the sun to find latitude, wind and wave direction, smell, and visual clues to find land.

5. Marine Crocodiles • Live in mangrove swamps and reef islands. • Mostly in tropical western Pacific (Australia and Indonesia) • Australians call them “Salties” • Dangerous to humans if get too close

6. Marine Birds • Class Aves (hence Avian) • Evolved from dinosaurs • Endotherms (warm blooded) • Have light, thin, hollow bones in order to fly • All birds lay eggs on land • Only 3% of known bird species qualify as seabirds • Most live in Southern Hemisphere • Have salt excreting glands

7. The Tubenoses • 100 Species • World’s most oceanic birds • Beaks can sense air speed, detect smells, and remove salt • Include the albatross with a wingspan of 12 feet! • Fly for weeks or months at a time without landing • Use thermals and uplift from winds and soar in long, looping, arcs • Eat fish

8. The Pelicans • Includes Pelicans, cormorants, frigate birds, and boobies • All have throat pouches and webbed feet • Pelicans dive for fish • Frigates can’t walk or swim so they have to catch fish or small squid in flight.

9. The Gulls • Mostly found along coasts and beaches • Scavengers (eat almost anything) • Good flyers, swimmers, and runners • Terns are included in this group and live mostly at sea.

10. The Penguins • Lost ability to fly • Use wings to swim long distances • Have fatty insulation, greasy feathers, and stubby appendages to hold in heat • Live mostly in the Antarctic (southern hemisphere), South America, and Australia • Emperor Penguins are largest. Can dive 875 feet and stay underwater for 10 minutes • Each fish, mollusks, crustaceans, squid