In 2008, the discovery in China of a nearly 220 million years old fossil of an undisputed turtle precursor, represented a major advance in our understanding of the evolution of the turtle shell.

As ancient turtle’s ribs fused into the shells they are known for today, they would have had a harder time breathing. All the while, as their midsections stiffened, they would have become slower.

Modern turtle shells certainly make for potent defenses, but the wide ribs of Eunotosaurus and Pappochelys do not. They wouldn’t even have covered the creatures’ heads, necks, or backs.

Such turtles are members of a group that split off the turtles’ evolutionary tree 100 million years ago. They have flat, leathery shells, long […] Skip to content. All Sections. Subscribe Now.

The shell tends to be relatively flat and they lack the red marking of the slider and the intricate head patterns of map turtles. Cooters are unique among Austin’s turtles in that most of their ...

A 260 million-year-old fossil has been determined to be the oldest ancestor of turtles found to date, revealing something about the reptile's mysterious past.

Interestingly, other early fossils of different turtle species had shells but no beaked jaws. The dawn beak turtle had a beak but no shell, but modern turtles have all of the above.

The dawn beak turtle had a beak but no shell, but modern turtles have all of the above. This strongly hints that the evolution of the species we see on Earth today is likely far more complicated ...

The bones of the 260 million-year-old Eunotosaurus, a reptilian creature found in South Africa, had wide, flat ribs and a sprawling, turtle-like figure, but it was far from the armor-encased ...

How smushed shells could help to resolve paleontological mysteries. By Asher Elbein You never know where a bit of unusual scientific research is going to lead. Consider a 2012 study about turtle ...

Paleontologists believe the turtle became stranded and died after crawling across a tidal flat. Then it suffered the ultimate indignity of its time.