HOME | DD

Description

Further fossil photography can be found in my DA "Paleo & Sci Illo" gallery:
lexlothor.deviantart.com/galle…
I discovered the complete shell of this Baptemys (an Eocene turtle) in Wyoming about ten years ago. This specimen tells an interesting taphanomic story. This aquatic turtle was snatched and crushed in the jaws of a large crocodile. The croc left a series of holes on this 70 cm long shell that indicate that it was a large one. The pressure exerted on the shell had been so great that the plastron (belly shield) had been driven up against the inside of the carapace. In the immediate aftermath of the croc's meal some unknown scavenger bit off the centrae of several of its vertebrae. Afterward fish of an unknown species picked the shell clean leaving thousands of tiny tooth scratches all over the inside of the carapace.
text & photo (c) John P. Alexander

Description

Further fossil photography can be found in my DA "Paleo & Sci Illo" gallery:
lexlothor.deviantart.com/galle…
I discovered the complete shell of this Baptemys (an Eocene turtle) in Wyoming about ten years ago. This specimen tells an interesting taphanomic story. This aquatic turtle was snatched and crushed in the jaws of a large crocodile. The croc left a series of holes on this 70 cm long shell that indicate that it was a large one. The pressure exerted on the shell had been so great that the plastron (belly shield) had been driven up against the inside of the carapace. In the immediate aftermath of the croc's meal some unknown scavenger bit off the centrae of several of its vertebrae. Afterward fish of an unknown species picked the shell clean leaving thousands of tiny tooth scratches all over the inside of the carapace.
text & photo (c) John P. Alexander