In June, the remains of a leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) were found on Bolshoy Solovetsky Island. It was transferred to the collection of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.
In June 2024, Nadezhda Cherenkova, previously an employee of the Solovetsky branch of the White Sea Biological Station of Moscow State University, discovered a leatherback turtle on the shore of the White Sea. The presence in the northern sea is not typical for this species of turtles, moreover, the discovery of this species on Solovki is a real sensation.
The range of the leatherback turtle in the Atlantic extends from Nova Scotia to Argentina. Individual specimens occasionally swim into European waters, carried by the Gulf Stream, so the turtle most likely swam along the northern coast of Europe past Norway and died in the waters of the Arctic Ocean, after which it was sucked into the White Sea Throat and brought by the current to the Solovetsky Islands.
The Northern Interregional Department of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources has decided to transfer the remains of the leatherback turtle to the collection of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. Researchers from the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and school volunteers took part in transporting the find from the Solovetsky Islands to Moscow.
The remains of the turtle were delivered from the Solovetsky Islands to the port of Kem. The transportation was carried out by volunteers Ilya Kolesnikov, a student of Moscow School No. 1505, and his supervisor Anatoly Peshkov, who came to the Solovetsky Islands as part of the school's summer internship. They did an important job: they packed the biomaterial, transported it to Kem, and handed it over to researchers from the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, herpetologists Roman Nazarov, researcher Eduard Galoyan, and to a graduate student from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the RAS Mark Pankin.
The length of the upper shell of this turtle is 140 cm. By the time the turtle fell into the hands of the museum staff, it had already been lying on land for several months and, apparently, spent a lot of time in the seas until it washed ashore.
“This is far from the largest and not the oldest specimen of this species, but not the smallest either. Our turtle is over 10 years old, and its weight could reach 200-300 kg,” says Eduard Galoyan.
The leatherback sea turtle discovered on Solovki is now in the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. It will be added to the museum’s scientific collection and will be registered according to all the rules: entered into the inventory book, provided with a label, registered in the electronic database of the herpetological collection.
"The arrival of such a rare animal in the museum's collection is a unique event. In the modern world, natural science museums rarely add large specimens of vertebrates to their collections. Despite the fact that turtles have been well studied, new molecular research methods will allow us to clarify some data," explains Mikhail Kalyakin, director of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.
The presence of a leatherback turtle in the collection of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University allows scientists to study the necessary tissue samples, conduct genetic and isotopic analysis. The analysis data will help determine the age of the turtle and, possibly, clarify its habitat.
Related materials:
Moscow Government Info Center: "MSU scientists found remains of tropical turtle in White Sea"
Moscow News Feed: "MSU scientists found remains of tropical turtle in White Sea"
MirTesen: "MSU scientists found remains of tropical turtle in White Sea"
Scientific Russia OK: "Remains of tropical turtle found in White Sea"
Scientific Russia: "Remains of tropical turtle found in White Sea"
Russian Academy of Sciences News: "Remains of tropical turtle found in White Sea"