A marine biologist helps a newborn sea turtle reach the sea on Cape Verde’s Boa Vista island. (Credit: Danielle Paquette) BOA VISTA, Cape Verde — She emerged from the ocean just before midnight, clambering up the shore as her ancestors have for 200 million years. Only stars glowed on this remote beach, where the sea turtle arrived to lay her eggs. She dodged plastic, fishing nets and oil spills to get this far. But another threat to her species lurks in the ground: sand temperatures that foster only one gender. “One hundred percent girls,” whispered the biologist, crawling next to the pregnant reptile. “This nest will be 100 percent girls.” As the earth gets hotter, turtle hatchlings worldwide are expected to skew dangerously female, scientists predict, making the animals an unwitting gauge for the warming climate. On the tiny West African island nation of Cape Verde — home to […]