Do Turtles Lay Eggs?

Turtles are oviparous creatures which means that they do in fact lay eggs. However they lay eggs with little or no embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of all turtles, along with most other reptiles.

All turtles lay eggs on land, and for many species this requires a lot of hard labor. During the egg laying process the mother turtle digs a pit and lays many eggs in a “nest” or byu burrowing them into the sand so that they are hopefully well hidden from predators. The mother turtle then returns to the water (if she is an aquatic turtle).

The hatching turtles have what is known as an “egg tooth” at the end of their beaks that helps them break open their eggs when it is time for them to hatch. Later they lose this tooth. For turtles that reside in the water, the process of reproducing can be very exhausting as it requires the mother turtle to drag themselves ashore, dig a pit, lay the eggs, and then drag themselves back to the water.

Once the aquatic baby turtles hatch they follow the light of the moon to walk out to sea. Many die during this process because they get lost or confused due to all of the artificial light sources we humans have created near the water, such as hotel lights, etc. They mistake it for the moon’s light and end up getting hurt or eaten by predators.