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Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
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The Prehistoric Turtle Thread
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Baby sea turtle tracks from the Pleistocene found in South Africa:
http://theconversation.com/first-fossil-trails-of-baby-sea-turtles-found-in-south-africa-122434
These trackways date from a time in the Pleistocene Epoch, when our species, Homo sapiens, was emerging. The Pleistocene was characterised by large fluctuations in global climate. Ice sheets repeatedly advanced and retreated over much of the northern hemisphere, as the climate cooled and warmed. These changes are reflected along the Cape South Coast by evidence of fluctuating ocean levels, which at times rose to as much 13 metres above present-day levels.
Because nothing like these fossil trackways has ever been described before, we have coined the scientific term “Marineropodidae” meaning “seafarer foot traces” to describe the family of remarkable trackways that we have encountered.0 -
Aragochersis , a rare terrestrial turtle from Cretaceous Spain:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667119303179?via%3Dihub0 -
Asmodochelys, a fossil sea turtle from the late Cretaceous, sheds light on origins of modern relatives:
https://phys.org/news/2019-12-turtle-genus-species-evolution-modern.html
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Laurasichersis, the only turtle of its kind to survive the late Cretaceous extinction in the northern Hemisphere:
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/prehistoric-turtle-survive-mass-extinction0 -
Battle-scarred fossils suggest giant turtles fought each other—and crocodiles three times their size
In the swamps and rivers of northern South America 12 million years ago, some of the largest turtles that ever lived fought epic battles for mates and territory. New fossils unearthed in Colombia and Venezuela reveal that the 1100-kilogram males of the species, Stupendemys geographicus, bore unusual horns on the front of their 2.4-meter-long shells, which they likely used to fight each other and fend off crocodiles more than three times their size. At the same time, a detailed look at the turtles’ gigantic jaws suggest they might not have been the ferocious predators some scientists presumed, but instead ate hard-shelled mollusks and large fruits.
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Battle-scarred fossils suggest giant turtles fought each other—and crocodiles three times their size
In the swamps and rivers of northern South America 12 million years ago, some of the largest turtles that ever lived fought epic battles for mates and territory. New fossils unearthed in Colombia and Venezuela reveal that the 1100-kilogram males of the species, Stupendemys geographicus, bore unusual horns on the front of their 2.4-meter-long shells, which they likely used to fight each other and fend off crocodiles more than three times their size. At the same time, a detailed look at the turtles’ gigantic jaws suggest they might not have been the ferocious predators some scientists presumed, but instead ate hard-shelled mollusks and large fruits.
Beat me to it! Very interesting, although I am not at all convinced that it couldn´t have been an opportunistic predator (even if an omnivorous one), considering how many freshwater turtles today will eat a very wide range of foods.
The largest modern day freshwater turtle in South America is the arrau (Podocnemis expansa), which is omnivorous; even though its diet is based on vegetable matter, it does eat carrion and small animals. The juveniles apparently eat many fish.
This turtle can grow up to 1 m long and weigh 90 kg which is very large as modern turtles go, but only a fraction of Stupendemys' size.
Stupendemys' closest living relative appears to be another Amazonian turtle, the big-headed turtle (Peltocephalus dumerilianus), also an omnivore known to take both invertebrate and vertebrate prey (apparently including piranha)
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Giant turtle from the Jurassic of Germany, nicknamed "Mobbl" but yet to be scientifically described and formally named. Article is in German.
At 1.40 m long this may be the largest known Jurassic turtle.
http://naturkundemuseum-bamberg.de/index.php/de/sonderausstellung/mobbl
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