Interesting

Researchers have discovered a species of extinct pig-nose turtle that lived alongside dinosaurs and fills a gap in understanding the evolution of turtles.

“Anatomically, it’s one of the most bizarre turtles that ever lived,” said Joshua Lively, who describes the species today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. “More importantly, it adds to a growing story about ecosystem dynamics during the Late Cretaceous across western North America.”

Lively studied the fossil as part of his master’s thesis at the University of Utah and is now a doctoral student at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. The extinct turtle was discovered in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by a team from the Natural History Museum of Utah.

The animal, a member of a group of turtles known as baenids, reached about 2 feet in length from head to tail. Its streamlined shell was adapted for living in a riverine environment. When it was alive, 76 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, southern Utah looked more like present-day Louisiana. The climate was wet and hot, and the landscape was dominated by rivers, bayous and lowland flood plains.

Unlike any turtle ever found, the broad snout of the newly discovered species has two bony nasal openings. All other turtles have just one external nasal opening in their skulls; the division between their nostrils is only fleshy.