There is an alternative explanation, still to do with temperature. Climate Change is a Problem. An article came out in Science magazine about how temperature determines gender in a variety of reptiles, snapping turtles for example. This fascinating little fact even has its own acronym — TSD or Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination. Instead, a sea turtle’s sex is determined by the temperature of the sand in which the female turtle buries her eggs. All crocodilians, most turtles, many fish, and some lizards exhibit TSD. One such adaptation is their use of temperature-dependent sex determination ... What Is the Factor That Makes a Crocodile Egg Male or Female? Temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), where the temperature of the embryo’s environment influences its sex development, is a widespread non-genetic process of sex determination among vertebrates, including reptiles. This makes determining their sex much more difficult, but it's not impossible. Some reptiles such as crocodilians and some turtles are known to display temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), where the ambient temperature of the developing eggs determines … However, unlike many mammals, turtles have no external genitalia. Green sea turtles don't develop into males or females based on sex chromosomes — rather, it's the temperature outside of the egg that determines the gender of the embryo. Female turtles have short and skinny tails while males sport long, thick tails, with their vent (cloaca) positioned closer to the end of the tail when compared to a female. Below 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius), offspring are predominantly male. Scientists know that temperature determines sex in certain reptiles—alligators, lizards, turtles, and possibly dinosaurs. In many turtles, warm temperatures during incubation, create females; cold temperatures, males. How to Tell If a Turtle Is Male or Female. It is more likely produce female sea turtle if the sand temperature is warmer than cool, which will have a big This is one hypothesis that explains dinosaur extinction: a meteor hit, cooling the Earth, producing an all-male population. The time and location of where the sea turtles lays their eggs is also important as the temperature can be vary (the different temperature between shade and sun), and that will determine their sexes. ... sea turtle sex is a function of incubation temperature. One cause of TSD is the enzyme aromatase. Bull JJ, Vogt RC. And if the green sea turtles of Australia are seeing this shift, the same thing is probably happening to many other sea turtles and other animals whose gender is determined by temperature… It is, of course, easiest to determine the gender of a turtle when looking at its tail length if you have multiple turtles of both sexes to compare. The temperature of the sand in a sea turtle’s nest determines the sex of the babies. ... to many other sea turtles and other animals whose gender is determined by temperature, he said. Temperature controls sex differentiation rather than causing a differential mortality of sexes. The advantage of focusing on this turtle species is that sex is determined in a brief five-day window during the 65-day egg incubation: the temperature-sensitive period.