Model 95A - Adult Leatherback Sea Turtle, "Mac"

3D Model

This is a swimming animation of an adult female leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). The Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) provided rare footage of a female turtle named Mac nesting during daytime, which was used to reconstruct this model. Mac (ID 666; PIT tag 989001001220036) has a minimum curved carapace length of 145.4 cm and a curved carapace width of 107.5 cm. Existing data on leatherbacks was also referenced. CG artist Johnson Martin used these data to reconstruct and animate the model using Blender software.

This research was done in collaboration with Upwell and LMC, with special thanks to Dr. George Shillinger, Dr. Heather Harris and Dr. Kristin Reed of Upwell; Dr. Justin Perrault and Derek Aoki of LMC. Thanks to Upwell for providing funding.

Downloads are freely available for creative and non-profit use. To inquire about licensing, please visit www.digitallife3d.org.