Assignment
1) Modern sea turtles began appearing in the fossil records:
a. 100-150 million years ago
b. after the giant asteroid hit the earth 65 million years ago
c. 150-200 million years ago
d. 65-100 million years ago
e. 200-300 million years ago
2) All 7 species of sea turtles currently living evolved 50-60 million years ago.
a. True
b. False
3) What is the scientific name of the olive ridley?
4) For the olive ridley turtle, the "ridley" in the name stands for:
a. Chas Ridley, who discovered this animal
b. "Ridley" is Spanish for the shade of brown on the carapace
c. a major nesting site: Ridley Beach, Mexico
d. the origin of "ridley" is unknown
5) Over the past 1000 years, the maximum number of sea turtles in our oceans at any one time for all 7 species combined probably totaled 100 million.
a. True
b. False
6) The mass nesting of olive ridley turtles is known as an _________________________
7) All mature olive ridley females participate in the arribada nesting strategy.
a. True
b. False
8) Currently, olive ridleys are the most abundant sea turtle in the world.
a. True
b. False
9) The arribada nesting strategy is hypothesized to help hatchling survival by producing, at one time, more hatchlings than the predators can possible catch and eat.
a. True
b. False
10) Adult olive ridleys are jellyfish feeding specialists.
a. True
b. False
11) Olive ridley eggs are preyed upon by:
a. raccoons
b. vultures
c. coatis
d. dogs
e. all of these predators prey on olive ridley eggs
f. coyotes
12) Because the meat of the olive ridley is poisonous, human impacts are limited to egg harvesting and its affect on the population.
a. True
b. False
13) The "Ostional Egg Harvest Experiment" is considered a success because research indicates that eggs harvested there (only eggs laid the first 3 days of the arribada are taken) have no overall impact of the number of hatchlings produced.
a. True
b. False
14) Olive ridleys are so abundant that it is impossible to reduce the population below sustainable levels.
a. True
b. False.