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Scientists Discover Ancient Turtle as Big as a Car

时间:2022-11-28 00:38:47

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Scientists have discovered one of the largest turtles on record. The turtle, about the size of a small car, lived in Europe 83 million years ago.

Researchers recently described remains1 discovered in northeastern Spain. The remains belonged to a turtle named Leviathanochelys aenigmatica. It was about 3.7 meters long. It lived during the Cretaceous Period - the final time in the age of the dinosaurs2. It is Europe's biggest-known turtle.

The ancient turtle was much larger than today's largest turtle - the leatherback, which can reach 2 meters long. Leviathanochelys nearly matched the largest turtle on record - Archelon, which lived roughly 70 million years ago and reached about 4.6 meters long.

"Leviathanochelys was as long as a Mini Cooper while Archelon was the same size as a Toyota Corolla," said study co-writer Albert Sellés of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP).

Leviathanochelys swam in dangerous waters. Its predators3 include mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, large water creatures up to 15 meters in length. Other nearby predators were sharks and rays.

"Attacking an animal of the size of Leviathanochelys possibly only could have been done by large predators in the marine4 context. At that time, the large marine predators in the European zone were mainly sharks and mosasaurs," said Oscar Castillo, a student at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and lead writer of the study that was published in Scientific Reports.

Castillo said during the Creataceous, marine turtles had increased body sizes. Leviathanochelys and Archelon could have been the biggest examples in this process. "The reason for this increase in body size" might have been "predatory pressures," Castillo said. But, he added, there might have been other causes at work.

Other large turtles from Earth's past include Protostega and Stupendemys, both reaching about 4 meters long. Protostega was a Cretaceous sea turtle that lived about 85 million years ago near modern North America. Stupendemys lived about 7-13 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch5 near modern South America.

Scientists found the Leviathanochelys remains near the village of Coll de Nargó in Catalonia's Alt Urgell area. A hiker in the Southern Pyrenees mountains saw the bones partially6 covered by the ground. To date, researchers have found parts of the back of the shell, and most of the pelvic area, but no skull7, tail or limbs.

The bones suggest the creature had a smooth shell similar to leatherback turtles, with the shell itself about 2.35 meters long and 2.2 meters wide. Leviathanochelys appears built for the open ocean, returning to land only rarely - for instance to lay eggs.

The presence of a couple of bony areas on the front side of the pelvis differs from any other known sea turtle, suggesting that Leviathanochelys represents a newly discovered lineage – a scientific term meaning series of organisms connected by a continuous line of descent.

The findings suggest large sizes in marine turtles developed independently in separate Cretaceous lineages in North America and Europe.

Leviathanochelys aenigmatica means "enigmatic leviathan turtle" owing to its large size and the curious shape of its pelvis that the researchers suspect was related to its breathing system.

Words in This Story

turtle – n. a reptile8 that lives mostly in water and that has a hard shell which covers its body

pelvic – adj. relating to or located in or near the pelvis

enigmatic – adj. full of mystery and difficult to understand

leviathan – n. something that is very large and powerful


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1 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
2 dinosaurs 87f9c39b9e3f358174d58a584c2727b4     
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西
参考例句:
  • The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 predators 48b965855934a5395e409c1112d94f63     
n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 );奴役他人者(尤指在财务或性关系方面)
参考例句:
  • birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
  • The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 marine 77Izo     
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵
参考例句:
  • Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
5 epoch riTzw     
n.(新)时代;历元
参考例句:
  • The epoch of revolution creates great figures.革命时代造就伟大的人物。
  • We're at the end of the historical epoch,and at the dawn of another.我们正处在一个历史时代的末期,另一个历史时代的开端。
6 partially yL7xm     
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲
参考例句:
  • The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
  • The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静,宵禁部分解除。
7 skull CETyO     
n.头骨;颅骨
参考例句:
  • The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
  • He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去,跌裂了颅骨。
8 reptile xBiz7     
n.爬行动物;两栖动物
参考例句:
  • The frog is not a true reptile.青蛙并非真正的爬行动物。
  • So you should not be surprised to see someone keep a reptile as a pet.所以,你不必惊奇有人养了一只爬行动物作为宠物。

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