Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Against insurmountable odds and after more than 160 years, an ancient sea turtle has finally been reunited – with itself.
Fossil evidence of the massive turtle Atlantochelys mortoni was first discovered in 1849 in the form of one-half of an upper arm bone – called the humerus. The other half of that bone would lie in a New Jersey streambed until it was stumbled upon by amateur paleontologist Gregory Harpel in 2012.
“I picked it up and thought it was a rock at first – it was heavy,” Harpel said.
The newer specimen was found in a fossil-hunting hotspot in Monmouth County, N.J., where Harpel often goes to look for fossilized shark teeth as a weekend hobby. After realizing that he had indeed found a fossil, Harpel brought the specimen to experts at the New Jersey State Museum, who joked that the amateur paleontologist had found the other half of a partial turtle limb being stored at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in New Jersey.
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