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The Prehistoric Turtle Thread
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17-05-2012 6:24pm#1According to DNA studies:
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/05/14/rsbl.2012.0331.short?rss=1
Alligator snapping turtle says it should have been obvious:
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They ARE archosaurs. And automatically that makes birds archosaurs (and reptiles) too...
Yes I know
Just like we are apes, and also are descended from apes. When I say they evolved from archosaurs, I'm obviously referring to a primative archosaur, long extinct.Which worked fine until crocs came along with their crushing jaws...
Those pesky crocs!0 -
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Found in Cerrejón, it is the earliest example of gigantism among freshwater turtles.
Interestingly, its massive jaws suggest it could eat anything it wanted. But I feel really bad for the little crocodile in the pic :S
http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/article00324.html0 -
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And its not only a pair... but nine couples that suffered the same fate!
http://news.yahoo.com/coitus-interruptus-ancient-turtle-sex-fossilized-231206051.html0 -
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This turtle was found in Cerrejón, and lived 60 million years ago- meaning it coexisted with Titanoboa and Carbonemys. At about 1.52 meters long, Puentemys was huge for modern day standards, but small if compared to Carbonemys. Its peculiar trait was its shell, about the same shape and size as a car tire. According to scientists this shape probably helped the turtle to warm up faster in the sun AND helped it avoid being swallowed by Titanoboas.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-fossil-turtle-colombia-car.html
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Fossilised turtle shells plucked from a Polish rubbish dump have been judged to be the oldest and most complete palaeontologists have yet discovered.
Dating back 215million years, experts say the shells could provide invaluable clues in solving the riddle of the origin of this ancient reptile which is venerated by cultures across the globe.
'I'd say my guardian angel led me here,' said Tomasz Sulej, the palaeobiologist who made the discovery.
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You know, the big turtle from Neverending Story. This movie traumatized me for life...
Article is in Spanish, as the 125 million year old turtle was found in Spain. Its name is Larachelus morla, the genus name being an homage to characters from the folklore of the region where it was found.
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As if a tubular snout and suction-feeding technique weren´t enough, the thing was HUGE- skull only was 70 cms making it one of the biggest sea turtles ever.
It was found in Morocco and lived during the late Cretaceous.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0063586#pone-0063586-t0010 -
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Eorhynchochelys is proof that turtles had a beak before they had a shell:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45261121?SThisFB
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From the late Jurassic of Germany- article is in German.
https://www.neumarkt-tv.de/2018/11/29/einzigartige-killerschildkröte-im-dinosaurier-museum-zu-sehen/
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This sea turtle lived during the early Cretaceous period, 120 million years ago.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/first-known-sea-turtle-and-it-laid-hard-eggs?fbclid=IwAR032uCTJ1z2DlgING2smDn_-VOZq7ctNKPEUFUK8qOu1aDFUzX_1D-zDE4
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Pappochelys, a Triassic turtle without an external shell, had earliest example of rare cancer:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2019/02/07/bone-cancer-pappochelys/#.XF-Js4OZ21s
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Pappochelys apparently was a burrower, suggesting a fossorial rather than aquatic start for the evolution of turtles:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46762-z
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Prehistoric turtle was stepped on by sauropod dinosaur.
Luckily, it was already dead.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/science/dinosaur-crushed-sea-turtle.html
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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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