Originally Thought to Be an Ancient Plant, It Turns Out to Be a 125 Million-Year-Old Baby Turtle Fossil

Originally Thought to be Ancient Plants, Turns Out to be a 125 Million-Year-Old Baby Turtle Fossil

The following 'Bahasa' text translated to 'English' while preserving any html tags: "Fossil plants collected by a Colombian priest over 50 years ago turned out to be the rare shell of a small turtle from the dinosaur era."

Source: Live Science

Padre Gustavo Huertas collected fossilized leaf-shaped shells around the town of Villa de Leyva between the 1950s and 1970s, initially identifying them as extinct plants. However, a recent study published on December 7th in the journal Paleontologi Electronica revealed that they were actually small turtle shells.

"Originating from the Aptian age"

The fossils, each measuring approximately 5 cm and 6 cm in length, originated from the Aptian period around 125 to 113 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 to 66 million years ago. They are the first recorded sea turtles from that period in northern South America.

This discovery is "truly surprising,"

Hector Palma-Castro, a paleobotany student at the National University of Colombia.

"Dikira tanaman purba" translates to "Thought to be ancient plants" in English.

"In the beginning, Huertas identified the fossils as Sphenophyllum colombianum, classified in a group of plants that generally lived between the Late Devonian, around 419.2 to 358.9 million years ago, and the Permian, around 298.9 to 251.9 million years ago."

Do the research again

The characteristics of age and the place where this fossil was found attracted the attention of Palma-Castro and her supervisor, one of them being Fabiany Herrera, a curator of fossil plants at the Field Museum in Chicago. They decided to conduct a re-evaluation of the identification of the fossil.

"When we took their photo, we thought, 'this is strange'," said Herrera.

The shape and edges of the leaves, which should not resemble plants, along with the lines on the fossil that resemble bones rather than veins, prompted Herrera to seek help from one of his co-authors, Edwin Alberto Cadena, a paleontologist at the Rosario University in Bogotá. The fossil verification team came from the upper shell of a sea turtle. Based on the size and thickness of the shell, as well as the growth pattern of living turtles, it was concluded that the animal was no more than 1 year old when it died.

Originally Thought to Be an Ancient Plant, It Turns Out to Be a 125 Million-Year-Old Baby Turtle Fossil

"In paleontology, it involves imagination and the ability to be amazed, always being tested," said Cadena.

"Finding hatchling turtle fossils is generally extremely rare. When turtles are very young, the bones inside their shells are very thin, making them easily breakable."
Source: Live Science

"Swipe Up"

The researcher states that the shells may originate from Desmatochelys padillai, which is the oldest documented sea turtle found in the same fossil layer. However, this certainty cannot be guaranteed without a complete framework.

"We have solved the small paleobotany mystery, but more importantly, this study shows the need to reexamine the historical collections in Colombia," Herrera explained."

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