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An 8 - million - year - old turtle cuticle unearth in Venezuela measures nearly 8 feet ( 2.4 meters ) long , making it the prominent completeturtleshell live to science , a young cogitation reported .
This plate go to an extinct creature calledStupendemys geographicus , which hold out in northern South America during theMiocene epoch , which live on from 12 million to 5 million years ago .
An illustration of a giant male (front) and female (left) Stupendemys geographicus out swimming for a snack.
S. geographicusweighed an estimated 2,500 pound . ( 1,145 kilograms ) , almost 100 time the size of its nigh living relative , the Amazon river turtle ( Peltocephalus dumerilianus ) , and twice the size of the largest living polo-neck , the maritime leathery turtle ( Dermochelys coriacea ) , the researchers drop a line in the study .
interrelate : exposure : These beast used to be giant
Its telling shell makes this ancient creature " one of the largest , if not the declamatory polo-neck that ever existed , " study senior researcher Marcelo Sánchez - Villagra , the film director of the Paleontological Institute and Museum at the University of Zurich , said in a assertion .
Study lead researcher Edwin Cadena, an associate professor of paleontology at Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, examines one of the Stupendemys geographicus male turtle shells during a dig in 2016.(Image credit: Rodolfo Sánchez)
The mintage likely attain its stupendous size thanks to the warm wetland and lakes in its home ground , Sánchez noted .
Scientists have known about the colossalS. geographicussince 1976 , but the new probe uncovered even more fossil and secrets about this poorly understood turtle . For instance , large caimans ( a type ofcrocodile ) chomp down onS. geographicusshells , andS. geographicusmales had tusk shells .
Included in the study were shells and the first known lower jaws of these turtle , which came from a 1994 dig in Venezuela ’s Urumaco region , as well as new discovery from the La Tatacoa Desert in Colombia . After examining these fossil , the research worker realized that the virile turtles had unique , horn - same weapon at the front of their shell , or upper shells .
Rodolfo Sánchez showcases the turtle shell of the huge Stupendemys geographicus, which lived about 8 million years ago in northern South America.(Image credit: Rodolfo Sánchez)
These horn were in all likelihood used as weapons in male - to - male person armed combat , the researchers said . Similar agonistic behaviour is seen today insnapping turtles(Chelydridae ) , whose Male often fight each other to establish say-so in overlap territories , the researchers said .
An " elongated and deep cicatrice in the left over horn " of one of the S. geographicus shield could be a mark from armed combat between males , the researchers added .
A lone cayman tooth protruded from another shell , suggesting that , though these turtles were large , lie in wait predatory animal still hunt them , the researchers said .
Study co-researcher Rodolfo Sánchez, a paleontologist at the Urumaco Paleontological Museum in Venezuela, collects data near where the fossils were discovered.(Image credit: Edwin Cadena)
The study was published online Wednesday ( Feb. 12 ) in the journalScience Advances .
Originally release onLive scientific discipline .
Rodolfo Sánchez (left) and Edwin Cadena (right) work together to excavate the enormous turtle fossils found in northern Venezuela.(Image credit: Edwin Cadena)
Edwin Cadena, Jaime Chirinos(Image credit: Rodolfo Sánchez)
Study lead researcher Edwin Cadena, an associate professor of paleontology at Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, examines one of the Stupendemys geographicus male turtle shells during a dig in 2016.(Image credit: Rodolfo Sánchez)
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