Epibionts associated with Chelonia mydas from Northern Brazil

Abstract

Epibionts have been documented from all extant sea turtle species. The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) appears to support the greatest diversity of epibionts (Frick et al. 1998; Frick et al. 2000). The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is also commonly colonized by a variety of commensals (Bugoni et al. 2001; Hirth 1997). To date, there is a paucity of information on the epibionts of green turtles in northern Brazil. Here we present results of a survey of epibionts from green turtles incidentally captured.[...]