A fossilized skeleton of a turtle, dating back about 228 million years to the dawn of the dinosaur¹ era, has been found in China, shedding new light on the earliest evolution of turtles.

 

一具可追溯到大约2.28亿年前恐龙时代开始之时的乌龟化石骨架在中国被发现，解释了最初的乌龟是怎么进化的。
 

 

This is the oldest turtle ever discovered with a toothless beak². The turtle, more than 2 meters long, with a short trunk, had no shell on its back and abdomen³, said Li Chun, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

Found from the late Triassic deposits in Guanling County in southwest China's Guizhou Province, it has been named Eorhynchochelys, meaning "first turtle with a beak", and featured in the latest issue of the academic journal Nature.

 

"We are familiar with modern turtles, but the evolution of turtle remains⁴ one of the biggest mysteries in paleontology," said Li, the lead researcher.

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