Archelon ischyros - the "immortal ancient giant tortoise"

The ancient giant tortoise (scientific name: Archelon ischyros), also known as the emperor tortoise and the ancient turtle, the type species is the "immortal ancient giant tortoise". Its scientific name Archelon comes from Greek, meaning "the emperor among turtles", and it is an extinct genus.

The ancient giant tortoise (scientific name: Archelon ischyros), also known as the emperor tortoise and the ancient turtle, the type species is the "immortal ancient giant tortoise". Its scientific name Archelon comes from Greek, meaning "the emperor among turtles", and it is an extinct genus. The giant sea turtle inhabited the Western Interior Seaway in the mid-late Cretaceous period 70 million years ago, which was a huge shallow sea area in the center of North America at that time. The ancient giant tortoise is one of the largest turtles in history. Its average body length is 4.1 meters, the spacing between flippers is 4.9 meters, and its weight can reach 2.2 tons. There are 2.5 or 5 cm spine protrusions on the tortoise shell.

There were a lot of ancient giant turtles in the Late Cretaceous. They had a sharp-edged beak without teeth, like a pair of polished V-shaped scissors, which could easily cut jellyfish, squid and other marine animals with slimy skins. It can cut up animal carcasses and algae floating on the sea, and all kinds of marine life smaller than it can become part of its diet.

In addition to hibernating on the seabed, ancient giant turtles can be self-sufficient in shallow seas to meet their life needs, so they rarely dive into deep sea waters. Like modern turtles, ancient giant tortoises would also take advantage of the darkness on land to climb onto the beach, quickly lay their eggs and bury them.

The ancient giant tortoise did not have the "pure bone armor" of modern turtles. It just combined the "ribs growing out of the body" and the "gelatinous cortex between the ribs" into a tortoise shell. This tortoise shell may also be covered with some leather surfaces. or cuticle for reinforcement. However, this still results in its turtle shell being too soft, having too many pores, and having limited defense. The large mosasaurs, chalk sharks, and swordfish that also inhabit the Western Inland Seaway can Use ancient giant turtles as a food source. The ancient giant tortoise belongs to the middle level of the ecological niche and can also prey on the larvae of top predators. When the end-Cretaceous extinction event occurred, the ancient giant tortoises did not quickly perish along with mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and ammonites. The real reason for their extinction may come from the restriction of inland seaways, and the destruction of eggs and larvae by smaller oceans. Due to animal predation and sudden drop in temperature, they died in the early Paleogene because they could not adapt to the new environment.

The largest emperor turtle fossil was discovered in the Pier Ear Shale in South Dakota, USA, in the 1970s. It can reach 460 cm in length, 400 cm in width between the two flippers, and weighs 3 tons. In the 1970s, this fossil was thought to be the largest turtle on earth, until the discovery of the ground-striped turtle broke its record. Because the ancient giant tortoise has no physical tortoise shell, it was considered to be a close relative of the living leatherback turtle in the past. However, current research shows that all species of the Prototheridae family, including the ancient giant turtle, are "independent of the existing turtles". The "outer" clade is not only unrelated to leatherback turtles, but also has no evolutionary relationship with all modern sea turtles.

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