#1484 · 🦎 reptiles
Leatherback Sea Turtle
🇳🇱 Lederschildpad ·Dermochelys coriacea
9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The leatherback sea turtle ( Dermochelys coriacea ), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth , is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae . It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell, hence the name. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 2 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #12 most seen of the reptiles in NL.
- 2,271 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Domenico Vandelli in 1761 (265 years ago).
- Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
fact sheet
- English
- Leatherback Sea Turtle
- Nederlands
- Lederschildpad
- scientific name
- Dermochelys coriacea
- class
- Reptilia
- order
- Testudines
- family
- Dermochelyidae
- IUCN Red List
- VU · vulnerable
- sightings in NL
- 2
- sightings in Europe
- 56
- sightings worldwide
- 2,271
- GBIF records in NL
- 4
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1761 by Domenico Vandelli
IUCN in Dutch: kwetsbaar. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 39677, Wikidata Q120043, GBIF 2441866, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.