After tiny loggerhead turtles hatch from eggs buried on Florida beaches, they scramble frantically out to sea. Once in the open water, we see neither hide nor hair of these endangered turtles until they show up as teenagers on the other side of the Atlantic. But a new study, the first to track newborn turtles during these "lost years," has finally found out what happens. The mystery of sea turtles' "lost years" had long stumped marine biologists, including study author Jeanette Wyneken of Florida Atlantic University, who described the lack of existing data in a press release:
“From the time they leave our shores, we don’t hear anything about them until they are found near the Canary Islands. Those waters are a bit like nursery school for them, as they stay for about four to eight years. There’s a whole lot that happens crossing the Atlantic that we knew nothing ...
