Toxochelys Fossil Bone Plate Giant Sea Turtle Prehistoric Reptile Cretaceous Collection

Description

Origin : Kansas (USA) - Niobrara Formation

Geological era : Late Cretaceous (Campanian)

Age : 80 million of years

Size : mm 16 x 14 x 5

Fossil Osteoderma Giant Sea Turtle mm 16 x 14 x 5 Toxochelys latiremis Extinct Prehistoric Marine Armored Reptiles Mesozoic Cretaceous Collectibles Paleontology Museum.

Pleasant collectible fossil find, Shell or Armor Scute (Dorsal Carapace or Ventral Plate) in excellent condition, high quality Fossil Bone Plate perfectly preserved with notable surface details, presents a surface texture with the grooves of blood capillarization still evident.
No restoration at all. Only a piece, as in photos.

The Fossil remains shows that the turtles, or more correctly the tortoises, appeared before the dinosaurs, during the Triassic period, and survived the largest end-Cretaceous mass extinction, known as the KT extinction. The sea turtles appeared later, uring the Giurassic, probably evolved from terrestrial species or marsh that have adapted to aquatic life by developing more streamlined shells and webbed limbs so it can move through the water.
Only two families of sea turtles survive today: the Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae. Remains of turtles are common among vertebrate fossils from all formations from the Triassic to the present time, and their distribution was widespread. Sea turtles, in particular, were common in the Cretaceous period, and especially if they know who came up to 6 meters in width. All fossil turtles known from fossil deposits of the Cretaceous of Kansas belong to the suborder of Cryptodira.
Toxochelys is the most common type of sea turtles found in the marine deposits of Late Cretaceous in the Niobrara Formation and in the Smoky Hill Chalk in western Kansas. Toxochelys was about 2 m (6 ft) in length. Four species are known: Toxocheys bauri, Toxochelys browni, Toxochelys latiremis and Toxochelys weeksi. This turtle was similar in appearance to modern leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), but it isn't closely linked to it. Common fossils include fragments of shells, arts and material of the skull. Several species have been described, but T. latiremis is the most common. It is known from several skeletons and shell fragments, and complete skeletons are rare. A close relative of such deposits is the genus Ctenochelys, which was recently described the species C. stenoporus.