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Agence France-Presse

How did the turtle get its shell? It sounds like the start of a fable, but it’s something scientists have wondered for years, and new fossil research is providing some clues.
The way that turtles evolved into their modern form, with a shell fused to their skeleton and a beaklike face without teeth, has been described as “one of evolution’s most enduring puzzles”.
Relatively few fossils of early turtles have been found, leaving it a mystery how the creature developed its unique features, and even which ancestors they evolved from.
Lost world of dinosaur and bird fossils goes on show after return to China
But new research published Thursday in the journal Nature fills in some gaps by examining a turtle fossil discovered in China that dates back 228 million years.
The skeleton has a beak, but also some teeth, suggesting it may be a “missing link” in the evolution from an earlier toothy turtle to today’s form.
“This is the first early fossil turtle with a beak,” said Chun Li, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and co-author of the paper on the fossil dubbed Eorhynchochelys.
“The interesting thing is that although a beak had developed, the teeth were preserved, so it is a half-beak, half-toothed jaw – an excellent transitional characteristic,” he said.

The fossil is also large, at 2.5 metres long, with a lengthy tail and broad and flat ribs along its back that appear to have formed a disclike precursor to a shell.
With so little evidence to go on, one of the great debates over turtle evolution is just which animals they evolved from.
One theory holds that they share the same common ancestor as most reptiles, but some experts argue the shape of a modern turtle’s skull means this is unlikely.
Chun said the shape of the bones in the new fossil lent weight to the idea that turtles evolved from the same ancestors as most reptiles, calling the specimen “an important missing link in the early evolution of the turtle”.
Over 200 fossilised flying reptile eggs found in China
It follows a handful of other discoveries in recent years, including a 220-million-year-old specimen with a fully formed underbelly covering but no shell on its back and a 240-million-year-old fossil with no shell at all.
Chun has spent the last 20 years studying reptile fossils in China’s Guizhou province, where the 220-million-year-old turtle was also found.
But he stumbled upon this latest fossil by chance, when a local museum asked him in 2015 to examine their marine reptile fossils.
It was still in the rock, displayed in the collection.
“Nobody knew what it was,” he said.


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Science

‘Nobody knew what it was’: Chinese fossil ‘a missing link’ in turtle evolution puzzle

New research lends weight to the idea that turtles evolved from the same ancestors as most reptiles, a Chinese scientist says. Photo: AFP

A handout photo released by Nature Publishing Group on August 22, 2018 shows a complete articulated skeleton of a Eoorhynchochelys sinensis, from Upper Triassic rock (about 228 years ago) of Guizhou province, China, as preserved. - The origins and phylogenetic relationships of turtles have remained one of evolution’s most enduring puzzles. These animals have such a derived body plan that it is difficult to compare them with other groups to learn how they might have evolved. In recent years, however, some intermediate forms have been found. One was Odontochelys from around 220 million years ago, which had a plastron, a fully formed shell covering the under-surface of the animal, but no distinct carapace, or ‘lid’ of the shell. (Photo by Xiao-Chun Wu / NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada / NATURE / Xiao-Chun Wu" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

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Guizhou find offers clues to the big mystery of how the animal’s shell fused to its skeleton


‘Nobody knew what it was’: Chinese fossil ‘a missing link’ in turtle evolution puzzle

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Guizhou find offers clues to the big mystery of how the animal’s shell fused to its skeleton

Guizhou find offers clues to the big mystery of how the animal’s shell fused to its skeleton