A sea turtle discovered in Alabama is a new
species from the Late Cretaceous epoch, according to a study published April
18, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Drew Gentry from the
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, USA, and colleagues.
Modern day sea turtles were previously thought to have had a
single ancestor of the of the Peritresius clade during the Late
Cretaceous epoch, from about 100 to 66 million years ago. This ancestral species, Peritresius ornatus, lived exclusively in North America,
but few Peritresius fossils from this epoch had been found in what is
now the southeastern U.S., an area known for producing large numbers of Late
Cretaceous marine turtle fossils. In this study, the research team analyzed sea
turtle fossils collected from marine sediments in Alabama and Mississippi,
dating from about 83 to 66 million years ago.
The researchers identified some of the
Alabama fossils as representing a new Peritresius species, which they
named Peritresius martini after Mr. George Martin who discovered the
fossils. Their identification was based on anatomical features including the
shape of the turtle's shell. Comparing P. martini and P.
ornatus, the researchers noted that the shell of P. ornatus is
unusual amongst Cretaceous sea turtles in having sculptured skin elements which
are well-supplied with blood vessels. This unique feature may suggest
that P. ornatus was capable of thermoregulation, which could have
enabled Peritresius to keep warm and survive during the cooling
period of the Cretaceous, unlike many other marine turtles that went extinct.
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