One of the largest turtles that ever lived prowled the lakes and rivers of northern South America from about 13 million years ago to 7 million years ago - and this car-sized freshwater beast was built for battle.

Scientists said on Wednesday they have unearthed new fossils of the turtle, called Stupendemys geographicus, in Colombia’s Tatacoa Desert and Venezuela’s Urumaco region that for the first time provide a comprehensive understanding of the big reptile, which got up to 13 feet (4 meters) long and 1.25 tons in weight.

Stupendemys males, unlike the females, boasted sturdy front-facing horns on both sides of the carapace - or shell - very close to the neck. Deep scars detected in the fossils indicated that these horns may have been used like a lance for fighting with other Stupendemys males over mates or territory.

Fighting occurs among certain turtles alive today, particularly between male tortoises, according to paleontologist Edwin Cadena of the Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, who led the research published in the journal Science Advances.

Stupendemys is the second-largest known turtle, behind seagoing Archelon, which lived roughly 70 million years ago at the end of the age of dinosaurs and reached about 15 feet (4.6 meters) in length.

The first Stupendemys fossils were found in the 1970s but many mysteries remained about the animal. The new fossils included the largest-known turtle shell - 9.4 feet (2.86 meters) long, even larger than Archelon’s shell - and the first lower jaw remains, which gave clues about its diet.

“Stupendemys geographicus was huge and heavy. The largest individuals of this species were about the size and length of a sedan automobile if we take into account the head, neck, shell and limbs,” Cadena said.

“Its diet was diverse including small animals - fishes, caimans, snakes - as well as mollusks and vegetation, particularly fruits and seeds. Putting together all the anatomical features of this species indicates that its lifestyle was mostly in the bottom of large freshwater bodies including lakes and large rivers,” Cadena added.

Stupendemys - meaning “stupendous turtle” - inhabited a colossal wetlands system spanning Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Peru before the Amazon and Orinoco rivers were formed.

Its large size may have been crucial in defending against formidable predators. It shared the environment with giant crocodilians including the 36-foot-long (11-meter-long) caiman Purussaurus and the 33-foot-long (10-meter-long) gavial relative Gryposuchus. One of the Stupendemys fossils was found with a two-inch-long (5 cm) croc tooth embedded in it.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-turtle/car-sized-prehistoric-south-american-turtle-was-built-for-battle-idUSKBN2062V2

Very soon, they will discover a fossil of a gigantic human of 20-30ft tall that lived on earth 2billion years ago......

Great job

Nigerians whats going on? Why can't find and preserve our own artifacts?

The other one was 330,000,000 years ago.
This one is 13,000,000 years ago.
Please,
How accurate is carbon dating?

can that help them fight against coranaVIRUS when it hits their country??

Built for war indeed. Na punna e dey fight for

ayam not understanding

The earth really has a huge and interesting history.

Honestly, ehhh God create oh. But human activities don ruin every thing

God is great

yanabasee:
Very soon, they will discover a fossil of a gigantic human of 20-30ft tall that lived on earth 2billion years ago......

They might have already found some. Possible descendants of the giants mentioned in Genesis 6. They were probably 9ft tall.

Science is fiction.

Nice one, people trying to answer the question how do we get here.

Them dey chop the thing? Customer that's all we know

All this so called millions of years wey just dey fly about like say na 1 minute

babzo:


They might have already found some. Possible descendants of the giants mentioned in Genesis 6. They were probably 9ft tall.

20billion years ago?

Wow

Soso exaggerate una Dey exaggerate, millions of years ago

I no dey put my mouth for watin i no know

Booked

Nice....

Car-sized punkass

abummrbet9ja1:
LET'S DESTROY B.E.T.9.J.A.

Has it destroyed you already

How do these people determine the age of the ancient object? And they can't determine the true age of cheating under 17 years, footballer from Africa.

The things I don't like is telling me 13 or 70 million years ago. Who will I asked to confirm if this is true or false.

Even with our eyes open, we have been told no more BH in the dreaded forest after tactically defeating them

Make Una dy give us bobo

Until they discover the gate of hell, I'm not impressed!

What's tha business?

Sirheny007:
The other one was 330,000,000 million years ago.
This one is 13,000,000million years ago.
Please,
How accurate is carbon dating?

0% ,only the Bible is accurate devoid of error and has all animal human historical antiquities

Ok

Sirheny007:
The other one was 330,000,000 million years ago.
This one is 13,000,000million years ago.
Please,
How accurate is carbon dating?

I still Dey wonder oo!