8 June 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

The largest marine turtle fossil of its kind ever discovered in Europe unearthed in Spain

In northern Spain, scientists discovered the remains of a new species of enormous marine turtle. The prehistoric creature is the biggest of its kind ever found in Europe, weighing about two tons and measuring 12 feet long.

The turtle sailed the subtropical sea that swept through Europe’s island coast 83 million years ago. The size is comparable to that of a Mini Cooper. The largest turtle alive today, the gubernatorial turtle, which is 7 feet (2 meters) long and famous for its protracted sea migration, is dwarfed by that size.

Scientists described the turtle, which they named Leviathanochelys aenigmatica, in a paper published in Scientific Reports. “Leviathan” is a nod to the animal’s large body size, and “chelys” means turtle. “Aenigmatica” translates to enigma—in reference to some of the creature’s strange characteristics, the authors write.

Leviathanochelys nearly matched the largest turtle on record – Archelon, which lived roughly 70 million years ago and reached about 4.6 meters long.

“Leviathanochelys was as long as a Mini Cooper while Archelon was the same size as a Toyota Corolla,” said paleontologist and study co-author Albert Selles of the Institut Catala de Paleontologia (ICP), a research center affiliated with Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

The excavation site where fossils of the large Cretaceous Period sea turtle Leviathanochelys aenigmatica were discovered in Catalonia Alt Urgell county, northeastern Spain.
The excavation site where fossils of the large Cretaceous Period sea turtle Leviathanochelys aenigmatica were discovered in Catalonia Alt Urgell county, northeastern Spain.

The discovery was entirely by chance: a hiker discovered some bone fragments while walking in the Pyrenees mountains, writes James Ashworth for London’s Natural History Museum. After that, the remains were collected by a local museum and the Catalan Department of Culture, but no one studied them until 2021. Researchers began new excavations at the Pyrenees site and uncovered fragments of the turtle’s pelvis and carapace—the part of the shell that covers the creature’s back.

Fossil shows that it has a fine kakapas similar to a seaguide, with its own shell 7.7 feet (2.35 meters) long and 7.2 feet (2.2 meters wide). Leviathanochelys appears built for the open ocean, returning to land only rarely – for instance to lay eggs.

The presence of a pair of bone bulges on the front side of the pelvic differs from that of other known sea turtles, suggesting that. This shows that sea turtle gigantisme is developing independently in a separate Cretaceous lineage in North America and Europe.

“During the Cretaceous, there was a tendency in marine turtles to increase their body size. Leviathanochelys and Archelon might represent the apex of this process. The reason for this increase in body size has been hypothesized to be predatory pressures, but there might be other factors,” said Oscar Castillo, a student in a master’s degree program in paleontology at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The presence of a couple of bony bulges on the front side of the pelvis differs from any other known sea turtle, indicating that Leviathanochelys represents a newly discovered lineage. It shows that gigantism in marine turtles developed independently in separate Cretaceous lineages in North America and Europe.

Cover Photo: Illustration of sea turtles. (Wikimedia Commons/Jordan Beard)

Banner
Related Post

Spectacular ancient mosaic found in Paphos, Cyprus

21 July 2021

21 July 2021

During the excavations carried out on Fabrika Hill in Kato Paphos, Cyprus, an ancient mosaic floor belonging to the Hellenistic...

Receding waters in Lake Van reveal rock-cut Urartian port

22 September 2022

22 September 2022

Located in the eastern province of Van in Turkey, the falling water level of Lake Van, with the decrease in...

New AI Tool ‘Fragmentarium’ Brings Ancient Babylonian Texts Together

6 February 2023

6 February 2023

An artificial intelligence (AI) bot was developed by linguists at the Institute for Assyriology at Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany...

An inscription with the name of the ancient city was found at the excavation site in Gordion, the capital of the Phrygians

8 August 2022

8 August 2022

An inscription bearing the name of the ancient city was found at the excavation site in Gordion, the capital of...

A former Spanish disco-pub confirmed as lost medieval Synagogue

11 February 2023

11 February 2023

In the Andalucian city of Utrera, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 14th-century synagogue. The discovery, made public on...

Interesting Social Dimensions of Rare Diseases Seen in the Bronze Age

10 March 2021

10 March 2021

When it comes to Rare Diseases, what almost all of us think of is that this disease has affected very...

Norse Runic Text found in Oslo could be Prayer!

30 December 2021

30 December 2021

Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Studies (NIKU) have unearthed two objects inscribed in Norse runic text in...

Research Helps İlluminate the History of the Scythians with 111 Ancient Genomes

27 March 2021

27 March 2021

Due to their interactions and conflicts with the major contemporaries of Eurasia, the Scythians enjoyed legendary status in history and...

An ancient “fridge” have uncovered at the Roman legionary fortress of Novae, Bulgaria

30 September 2022

30 September 2022

Polish archaeologists, during excavations at the Roman legionnaires’ camp in Novae, discovered a container that could be described as an...

2600-year-old Med period artifacts found in Oluz Höyük, in Turkey

17 October 2022

17 October 2022

During the Oluz Höyük excavations in Amasya, artifacts dating back to the Med Kingdom period were found, dating back to...

Puzzling rings may be finger loops from prehistoric weapon systems

24 May 2023

24 May 2023

When many researchers looked at an astonishing group of artifacts discovered at French archaeological sites, they presumed they were ornaments...

Paleontologists Unearth 139 Million-Year-Old Pregnant Dinosaur Fossil in Chile

10 May 2022

10 May 2022

Archeologists in Chile have unearthed the fossilized remains of a 13ft-long pregnant ichthyosaur from a melting glacier -marking the first...

Researchers find 3,000-year-old shark attack victim in Japan

24 June 2021

24 June 2021

In a paper published today, Oxford-led researchers reveal their discovery of a 3,000-year-old victim—attacked by a shark in the Seto...

A cave complex with hieroglyphs and Varangian symbols discovered in center of Ukraine

19 November 2022

19 November 2022

An ancient cave complex thought to date from Kievan Rus’ has been discovered in central Kyiv at Voznesensky Uzvoz. Dmytro...

A new study reveals the Achaemenid Kingdom paid its workers silver

21 September 2021

21 September 2021

A new study on inscribed clay tablets that were used in the treasury archives of the Achaemenid Empire revealed that...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *