Fossil of Ancient Pregnant Turtle Discovered
Features of the five crushed eggs discovered inside the fossil turtle's body cavity suggested the female turtle would have laid them in a matter of days. Credit: Darla Zelenitsky, University of Calgary.
2008.08.27 - Canada
- A turtle that toddled alongside the dinosaurs died just days before laying a clutch of eggs.
- Scientists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Canada discovered the turtle in 1999 in a mud-filled channel in the badlands of southeastern Alberta. Then, in 2005, University of Calgary scientists found a nest of 26 eggs laid by another female of the same species in the same region.
- The pregnant turtle represents the first fossil turtle to be unearthed with eggs still inside the body cavity, the scientists say.
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