The origin of the turtle’s shell has not been convincingly explained to any length or depth. A small reptile now named Eunotosaurus that lived approximately 250 million years ago in the “Permian” age has often been stated and referred to as a probable turtle or turtle based ancestor. It had ribs which were broadened in such a way that suggests it played the role of a rudimentary “shell”. But whatever the beginnings of turtles may have been – then the shell itself is now the mark of the turtle clan.
In spite of the millions of years of evolution that have seen turtles established nearly everywhere on the earth except for the air , with “flying turtles”. the shell itself has been retained and is the most recognizable form and indeed trademark of this group and grouping of type of animals.
Oldest Turtle Found; May Crack Shell-Evolution Mystery – Care2 … – Fossils of the oldest known turtles, unearthed in southwestern China, may help answer an evolutionary enigma—how did the turtle get its shell?
How the Turtle got It’s Shell… « Nirvana Peace – Xiao-chun Wu, a palaeontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and a member of the research team, said: “Since the 1800s, there have been many hypotheses about the origin of the turtle shell. Now we have these fossils of the …
NeuroLogica Blog » Turtle on the Half-Shell – The turtle shell is a dramatic evolutionary adaption, and yet it appeared fully formed in the fossil record, so paleontologists could only speculate about its origins. A report is about to be published in the journal Nature by authors …
Evolution of Turtle Shell: The Mystery Gets Cracked Open by Scientists – Uncovered in south west China last year, Odontochelys semistestacea seems to be the oldest known turtle fossil – believed to date 220 million years back. More.
A Clue to the Evolutionary Riddle of How the Turtle Got Its Shell … – Says researcher Xiao-chun Wu: “Since the 1800s, there have been many hypotheses about the origin of the turtle shell. Now we have these fossils of the earliest known turtle. They support the theory that the shell would have formed from …