Ancestor Tortoise Survived Dinosaur Extinction 66 Million Years Ago
Recent fossil discoveries in France show that one type of land turtle in the Northern Hemisphere survived the mass extinction that occurred 66 million years ago, when the dinosaurs were wiped out. Paleontologists believe this is the earliest ancestor species of this type of turtle, which is different from modern turtles.
Scientists discovered fossils of this *L. Relicta* turtle in a quarry in Mont de Berru, France.
Based on the analysis of the fossilized shell, limbs, and skull, this adult turtle was about 60 cm long and lived in what is now France 56 million years ago. This turtle's head could not retract into its shell, but it had other features to avoid danger, such as a particularly hard shell, spikes on its neck, limbs, and tail. It was a different type of turtle than modern turtles.
Research shows that several turtles and dinosaurs coexisted during the Mesozoic Era, but almost all of them went extinct in the mass disaster that destroyed 70% of the world's life.
Prior to this study, archaeologists discovered another turtle species called *meiolaniid* that survived the disaster, living in what is now the Southern Hemisphere. This study, published in the *Scientific Reports* journal, found that *L. Relicta* is the only type of turtle that survived the disaster in the Northern Hemisphere but is now extinct.
Unfortunately, these fossils are the only known fossils of *L. Relicta* that archaeologists have, so we cannot know when this turtle eventually went extinct.
Researchers also found that *L. Relicta* turtle is closely related to a turtle that lived 100 million years ago during the Jurassic period and was located in what is now China and Mongolia.
It was very difficult to survive the disaster, facing toxic air and scarce vegetation. From the records, the surviving species were not very large, only able to survive by eating the limited food left after the disaster.
What strategies did *L. Relicta* turtle take to survive? How did its relatives migrate from the East to Europe? These are all mysteries now.
