Malaysia: Rare green turtle twins found sharing an egg during excavations

In a rare finding, the Juara Turtle Project (JTP) in its recent nest excavation discovered a turtle egg that was shared by two offsprings. A report by IFL Science revealed that the excavation was done in Malaysia's Tioman and the findings were shared on Facebook last week. This discovery is being considered rare as finding two turtles sharing an egg is highly unusual.

Twin turtles were found out of 105 eggs

The JTP discovered the pair of green turtles twins out of the 105 eggs that they found and were among the five unhatched eggs, informed the organisation in an interview with IFL Science. Although the occurrence of twin turtles is extremely rare, other parts of the world have reported few similar cases. The Malaysia-based organisation further revealed that twinning cases in turtle eggs normally have two distinctions as they can either be conjoined twins or fully separated twins.

Among these two, the JTP discovered the latter one revealing that the rare twins were fully separated inside the egg and were at the late stage of development. However, the turtles were unable to survive as they probably competed over the limited resources in the egg's yolk sac, the experts suspected. They said that in the majority of such cases, turtle twins do not survive even if they develop as conjoined twins, since they still fight over the lack of resources in the egg. 

What does the JTP do?

The JTP is a Malaysia-based organisation that aims to protect the global population of turtles by tracing and guarding egg clutches, study the turtles that hatch and ensuring their smooth release into the ocean. As part of their execution of the plan, volunteers at the JTP first find egg nests and relocate them to a safe shelter where the turtles won't be harmed by natural or artificial causes. This step is followed by a detailed study of the hatchlings and even the dead ones to determine the difference in conditions at different egg nests.

Volunteers at the JTP are reportedly motivated by the threat that green turtles face due to increased hunting, marine pollution, fewer nesting grounds and on a larger scale, climate change.

Image: Facebook/@JuaraTurtleProjectTioman