Kara Dodge / Massachusetts Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs
EOL staff
Dermochelys coriaceaDermochelys coriacea at sea off Massachusetts, USA. Large Pelagics Research Center, NMFS Permit #1557-03Source: Flickr. Cropped and levels adjusted from original.
From Holbrook, North American Herpetology, circa 1842 (public domain). This is a modified version of a plate from this work at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. I cropped and cleaned up the image quite a bit--removing the yellow cast and enhancing contrast and color a little. More of these images are posted on Wikimedia Commons, and I will be adding more as time allows.
About a foot long. I have only seen one other wild Desert Tortoise many years ago,so I was happy to see him/her. These guys are becoming very rare,like many desert reptiles, because they get run over, and taken home as pets. Now they are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This population in Utah is their northeastern most, and they are particularly rare here.