At Ingram Island off Northern Australia, the Pacific Island’s largest green sea turtle rookery, scientists have found that female sea turtles outnumber males by 116 to 1. Scientists expected to see a higher percentage of female sea turtles to males as warmer sand during egg incubation leads to female gene expression and climate change has lead to warmer temperatures in this part of the world. However, they were taken aback by the degree to which females outnumbered males.

“We’re talking a handful of males to hundreds and hundreds of females. We were shocked,” says Camry Allen, a turtle scientist with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

A new paper published monday in Current Biology outlines the extent of this problem and the risks it poses to global populations of not only sea turtles, but other temperature dependent species as well.

Read the full article [here(https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/australia-green-sea-turtles-turning-female-climate-change-raine-island-sex-temperature/).