Eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit is the sweet spot for sea turtles. At that temp, babies have an equal chance of being male or female — so paint the nursery yellow! When things get hotter, however, tots are more and more likely to be female. At 86.9 degrees F, only lady sea turtles are born.
Which means climate change is effin’ things up again, according to research published today in Nature Climate Change. A warming world could make male hatchlings a thing of the past, potentially driving the turtles extinct. Yikes. One of the study’s authors, Graeme Hays from Deakin University, notes that the population of Caribbean green turtles has already shrunk more than 99 percent.
The Sydney Morning Heraldhas the scoop:
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