Earliest turtle with only a partial shell
Formally described and named in 20 08,
Odontochelys semitestacea existed around
220 million years ago during the late Triassic
period, in what is now south-western China.
Unlike modern-day turtles it had teeth, and
instead of a dorsal (upper) shell or carapace
it sported neural plates and broadened ribs.Earliest turtle with a complete shell
Proganochelys first appeared on Earth around
210 million years ago, during the late Triassic
period, just after the evolution of dinosaurs and
mammals. It possessed a complete shell, with
both a dorsal carapace and a ventral plastron
(lower shell). An omnivore with no teeth, it
measured about 60 cm (2 ft) in length.Earliest fossil sea turtle
Initially unearthed during the 1940s at Villa
de Leyva in Colombia, fossils of the 2-m-long
(6-ft 6-in) species Desmatochelys padillai date
from the early Cretaceous period, more than
120 million years ago.Largest freshwater turtle ever
The first-known remains of Carbonemys cofrinii
were discovered in a coal mine in Colombia in
2005, but the species was not officially named
and described until 2012. It lived 60 million years
ago during the Palaeocene epoch. C. cofrinii’s
shell was 1.72 m (5 ft 7.7 in) long, its skull was the
size of an American football and its total length
was nearly 2.5 m (8 ft 2.4 in) – slightly smaller
than a Smart car.Longest dive by a marine vertebrate
In Feb 2 003, an adult female loggerhead
turtle (Caretta caretta) dived for 10 hr 14 min
in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of
Tunisia. The marathon underwater swim was
recorded by researchers led by Dr Annette
Broderick of the University of Exeter, UK.
Loggerhead turtles are able to slow down
their internal systems, reducing the need
for oxygen and enabling them to survive
underwater for hours
on one breath.Turtles
ANIMALS
SMALLEST
TURTLE FAMILY
Three taxonomic
families of turtle
each contain only
a single living
species. They are:
Carettochelyidae,
which contains the
pig-nosed or Fly River
turtle (Carettochelys
insculpta, above);
Dermatemydidae,
containing the
hickatee or Central
American river turtle
(Dermatemys mawii);
and Dermochelyidae,
which contains the
leatherback sea
turtle (Dermochelys
coriacea).Longest reptile migration
From 2006, satellites tracked a tagged
leatherback turtle (D. coriacea) for two years as
it made a 20,558-km (12,774-mi) journey from its
nesting site on the beaches of Papua, Indonesia,
to feeding grounds off the coast of the US state
of Oregon. The journey took the intrepid turtle
647 days to complete.
The leatherback is also the fastest chelonian
in water, with a speed of up to 35 km/h (22 mph)
recorded for one specimen.Largest congregation of turtles
Every February, turtles emerge from the sea
after dark to the same 10-km (6.2-mi) stretch
of beach at Gahirmatha in Odisha, eastern India.
There, they lay more than 50 million eggs in the
sand, and are back in the sea by dawn. In 1991,
approximately 610,000 specimens of olive ridley
turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) were counted
nesting on the beach.Rarest turtle
Once native to the Yangtze River and across
China, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus
swinhoei) is currently only represented by three
living specimens. A fourth died in Jan 2016 (see
right). One of the surviving turtles inhabits a lake
in northern Vietnam, where it was discovered
in 2008; the other two, a male and female, are in
captivity in China’s Suzhou Zoo. Efforts to breed
young turtles have so far failed. Not surprisingly,
the Yangtze giant softshell turtle is categorized
as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN.Rarest sea turtle
Numbers of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (L. kempii)
have suffered owing to pollution, habitat loss
and entanglement in shrimp nets. They are also
a popular food in Mexico. A 2014 estimate of
nest numbers placed them at 118, but during
that year 10,594 hatchlings were released
by wildlife officials along the coast of the US
state of Texas. The sea turtle occurs in the
Gulf of Mexico and warmer stretches of the
Atlantic Ocean, but has been spotted as far
north as New Jersey, USA. It is categorized
as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN.A turtle shell is actually made up of 50 bones. Ribs and vertebrae fuse together
outside the turtle’s body to form a tough, made-to-measure body armour.LARGEST SEA TURTLE EVER
Archelon ischyros lived around 70–80 million
years ago, during the late Cretaceous period,
and occupied the seas around what is now
North America. The largest specimen on record
measured more than 4 m (13 ft 1.4 in) long and
4.9 m (16 ft 0.9 in) wide from flipper to flipper. It is
estimated to have weighed more than 2,200 kg
(4,850 lb) – about the same as a rhinoceros.
Instead of a solid shell, Archelon had a leathery or
bony carapace supported by a skeletal framework.Turtles have no teethA turtle’s shell has
evolved from its
ribcage and part of
its backboneIt has been estimated that
only one newly hatched sea
turtle in every thousand
survives to adulthoodGreen sea turtles can
stay underwater without
breathing nasally for
up to five hoursNorth America’s stinkpot
turtle earned its name from
the foul smell released from
scent glands around its
shell’s edge, probably to
deter predatorsMock turtle soup is a
turtle-free dish dating
back to 18th-century
England. It inspired the
character of the Mock
Turtle in Lewis Carroll’s
novel Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland (1865).A group of turtles is
variously known as a nest,
a bale, a dole or a turnThe^ first^ recorded
specimen of Archelon
ischyros was obtained
in 1895 from the Pierre
Shale of South Dakota,
USA. It was formally
described by Dr
G R
Wieland (below, with
the specimen).Q: How old was Tu’i Malila,
the oldest recorded
chelonian, when he
died in 1965?
A: 188