Ancient Thick-shelled Turtle Discovered in Coal Mine

livescience ^ | 4-9-10 | Rachael Rettner, LiveScience Staff Writer

[cajuncow]

A new fossil turtle species discovered in South America boasts quite a bulky shell — about as thick as your average high-school textbook.

The shell, about 3.3 feet (1 meter) across and 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters) thick, might have protected the turtle against attacks from large crocodile-like animals as well as the giant Titanoboa, the world's largest snake (about 45-feet long), which would have shared this turtle's neighborhood around 60 million years ago, the researchers say.

The newly identified species, called Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki and discovered in the Cerrejón coal mine in Columbia, was the ancestor to one of the most diverse groups of South American freshwater turtles living today, said study author Edwin Cadena, a doctoral candidate at North Carolina State University.

[al baby]

maybe its a horta

[cajuncow]

FYI

[umgud]

Kewl.

[Domandred]

Close down the mine! We have to protect the turtle! Oh it’s already dead? We were too late! Close down the mine and mourn another extinct species cause my fossil fuel mining!

[Domandred]

species cause my fossil

oi my typing is as bad as liberal logic

[tophat9000]

maybe its a horta

How to you write "No Kill I" in Spanish ?

[Snickering Hound]

[cajuncow]

[cajuncow]

Darn. You beat me.

[al baby]

ninguna matanza yo

[donhunt]

It could have been one of the Slowskis from the Comcast commercial.

[GitmoSailor]

[cajuncow]

[Dr. Sivana]

And this is why "You shall build a turtle fence!"

Auto Tune News #10 Turtle Fence

[GitmoSailor]

Copied thanks................

[FreedomPoster]

OK, LOL! That was quick!

[GitmoSailor]

Here's one more............

[17th Miss Regt]

A pushme-pullyou turtle!

[JoeProBono]