Gallery 4.4: Sea Turtle Identification

Leatherback Turtle (DKK): The only sea turtle with a soft shell, which is black with white spotting, and has five to seven ridges that run down its back

Olive Ridley Turtle (LKV): A small species with a gray-green shell, with five central plates, and five to nine pairs of lateral plates (the other turtles will never have more than five) 

Green Turtle (TUG): Just two prefrontal scales between the eyes (unlike the other turtles with four or five), and a smooth oval shells that is brown and yellow-green in younger individuals, and darker green in adults (Photo: A. Bruckner, NOAA)

Loggerhead (TTL): A wide, blocklike head, four prefrontal scales (two pairs) between its eyes, with five central plates going down its back and five lateral plates on each side (Photo: NOAA Fisheries)

Hawksbill (TTH): A sharp, hawklike beak, and the only turtle whose plates on its top shell overlap, like shingles on a roof (Photo: C. Rogers, USGS)