Researchers recently studied new specimens of an ancient turtle like fossil that was originally found more than 100 years ago, and have determined it fills a gap in the evolution of turtle shells.
Turtles use their shells as both shelter and protection from predators, but have you ever wondered how those shells developed?
Researchers recently researched new specimens of an ancient turtle like fossil that was originally found more than 100 years ago, and have determined it fills a gap in the evolution of turtle shells.
Turtles are the only animals with an exterior shell made from their ribs, backbone and shoulder bones, so evolutionary biologists have wondered for years how the turtles developed the hard outer protective layer.
The new research is of an extinct South African reptile named Eunotosaurus, believed to have lived some 260 million years ago.
Lead researcher Doctor Tyler Lyson from the Smithsonian Institution and Yale University said: “The shell evolved over millions of years and was gradually modified into its present-day shape. Eunotosaurus is a good transitional fossil which bridges the morphological gap between turtles and other reptiles.”
By approximately 40 million years, Eunotosaurus is the missing predecessor to the oldest known turtle species – a 220 million year old fossil from China whose shell was not fully formed, and the oldest known fossil of a turtle with a fully formed shell that is 210 million years old.
