Turtle Autopsy

One of my many interesting experiences while in Australia was taking part in a green sea turtle autopsy. The lead veterinary technician drew a photo for me leaving instructions and tools for dissecting the turtle. I had previous experience dissecting other animals so I was slightly better prepared than other interns for the job. This particular turtle was one that had been tagged and released by Dolphin Marine Magic so we were curious as to its cause of death. Upon cutting into the turtle I could see that there were white patches on the turtle’s organs which were larvae from worms that were living in the turtle’s intestine. I inspected the lungs under the suspicion that the turtle had drowned. We found that it had air in its lungs showing that our assumption that it had drowned was correct. After confirming the cause of death we took blood and tissue samples from all the major organs to see the levels of blood cell types and trace elements found in the blood. This was a great hands on experience and built useful skills for my future endeavors.

This photo displays a green sea turtle during a postmortem procedure