Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

The olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also called the Pacific ridley, is the second-smallest and most abundant of the world's sea turtles, found in warm tropical waters of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. It is best known for the arribada, a mass nesting event in which thousands of females come ashore together to lay eggs on the same beach within a span of days. It has an olive-green, heart-shaped carapace and is unusual among sea turtles for its variable, asymmetrical number of lateral shell plates. It feeds mainly on invertebrates such as jellyfish, crabs, and sea urchins, and is assessed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.