14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study in the science journal PaleoBios announces the discovery of a set of fossilized remains that paleontologists say come from the absolute oldest sea turtle on record.
The remains, a nearly complete skeleton, four skulls and fragments from two shells, were unearthed in Colombia back in 2007. When discovered, the fossils were simply stored at research institutions, and so it took a while for researchers to get around to studying and classifying them.
Now, paleontologists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt say they belong to a previously unknown species and that, as noted, these reptiles are the oldest sea turtles known to science.
The fossils date back to the Cretaceous
The sea turtle remains date back to the Cretaceous, i.e. between 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago. Thus, the Senckenberg Research Institute team says they are about 120 million years old, which means they predate the previously known oldest specimen of the kind by about 25 million years.
“'Santanachelys gaffneyi is the oldest known sea turtle' - this sentence from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is no longer up-to-date. We described a fossil sea turtle from Colombia that is about 25 million years older.”
“The turtle described by us as Desmatochelys padillai sp. originates from Cretaceous sediments and is at least 120 million years old,” expert Edwin Cadena said in a statement, as cited by Science Daily.
Judging by the size of the bones, the skulls and the shell fragments pulled from Cretaceous sediments, it is estimated that this ancient sea turtle species could grow to measure 2 meters (around 6.5 feet) in length. Anatomically, the species wasn't very different to modern marine turtles.
A better understanding of past biodiversity
Fossil evidence uncovered over the years identifies sea turtles as the descendants of terrestrial and freshwater turtles that emerged some 230 million years back. In the Cretaceous period, some of these reptiles evolved to become sea dwellers while others set up camp on land.
All the same, researchers are yet to fully understand these shifts in ancient biodiversity. Now that yet another sea turtle species much older than all the others has been confirmed, paleontologist expect the find will help them better understand the evolution of the reptiles.
