Volunteers on the Crystal Coast documented a rare genetic mystery during a sea turtle nest excavation in Emerald Isle.
Members of the Emerald Isle Sea Turtle Patrol reported that Nest 39 successfully hatched over the weekend, with 31 out of 54 hatchlings making it safely to the ocean.
However, volunteers counting the remaining shells noticed something they had never seen before—every single egg had unusual strings of shell material attached to it.
State sea turtle biologists and development experts reviewed photos of the nest and confirmed the deformity was caused by an uncommon ovarian issue in the mother.
Officials say this structural anomaly has only been documented a handful of times in North Carolina history.
