Turtle history: no shell fossil (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, August 24, 2018, 11:45 (2085 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "A fossilized turtle discovered in southwestern China fills an evolutionary hole in how the reptiles developed features such as a beak and shell, researchers report on 22 August in Nature. Although the specimen can help scientists to pin down when modern turtles developed such characteristics, it’s also muddied the waters when it comes to illuminating the group’s origins.

"The roughly 2-metre-long animal, dubbed Eorhynchochelys sinensis, lived about 230 million years ago. Its skull is similar to those of modern turtles, whereas the rest of the animal’s skeleton is more like that of a predecessor that lived 10 million years before.

We should be surprised that any remains are found from 230 million years ago, but when they are found, they provide yet more evidence of links between earlier and later life forms, i.e. of common descent.