First record of the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata, Reptilia: Testudines: Cheloniidae) from South Korea

Abstract

To conserve national biodiversity, enlisting and detailed morphological description of unrecorded species is critical. Here, we, for the first time in Korea, report and describe detailed morphological characteristics of two juvenile hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, captured from Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do and Geumnam-myeon, Hadong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea on 4 August 2016 and 19 December 2016, respectively. Both specimens had a narrow head, pointed beak, four pairs of costal scutes, and four pairs of poreless inframarginal scutes, which are typical morphological characteristics of E. imbricata. Phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA control region sequences of a specimen confirmed again that the specimens are E. imbricata. With this addition of E. imbricata ( Mae-bu-ri-ba-da-geo-buk in Korean), four species of sea turtles have now been reported from Korean waters.

Keywords

• Cheloniidae
• Eretmochelys imbricata
• Hawksbill turtle
• Sea turtle