Even skill is prone to the occasional case of misguided identity , peculiarly when it comes to figuring out what ’s in afossil . When Colombian non-Christian priest Padre Gustavo Huertas found two minor , pear-shaped tilt with leaf - like patterns sometime between the fifties and 70s , he classified them as fossilized plant life . But on more late examen , it was revealed the rocks were n’t the remains of ancient plant life after all – they were baby polo-neck shells .
Huertas in the beginning deemed the fossils to be specimens of the flora speciesSphenophyllum colombianum . This was odd ; the fossils date to the Early Cretaceous , but other extremity of this plant life ’s genus were thought to have died out more than 100 million yr before that time .
Upon closer review of one of the fossil , researchers Fabiany Herrera and Héctor Palma - Castro remark central plant features , such as its condition and vein , were missing . alternatively , it looked more like bone . Palaeontologist Edwin - Alberto Cadena corroborate this was indeed the case – and that pearl was the scale of atiny turtle .
The turtle fossil with rib and back bones superimposed.Image credit: Photo by Fabiany Herrera and Héctor Palma-Castro; drawing by Edwin-Alberto Cadena and Diego Cómbita-Romero
“ They sent me the photos , and I said , ‘ This decidedly looks like a shield ’ – the bony upper casing of a turtle , ” say Cadena . It also turn out that the visible part of the fossil was the underside of the turtle shell , which could explain why it was misidentified .
What Huertas may have think to be leaves and stems were rather the costa bones and vertebra making up the shell . The more typically identifiable marks that could be used to compare to other turtles , both advanced and fossilized , are found on the outside of the shell .
yield the size of the polo-neck , this was something of a rare discovery . As Cadena explained , the bone in theshellsof new turtles is very slender and so can be easily destroyed . As a outcome , there are n’t many fossils of turtle hatchling around .
The researchers decide that this finical turtle was somewhere between 0 and 1 year old when it died , with a slightly developed carapace . They also nicknamed it “ Turtwig ” , after the small , turtle - esquestarter Pokémonthat has a leafy twig on its head .
As well as potentially providing perceptiveness into polo-neck developing during the Cretaceous – some produce up to 4.5 meters ( 15 substructure ) – the researchers trust their discovery will have a wider encroachment on the bailiwick . “ We answer a small paleobotanical mystery , but more importantly , this bailiwick shows the pauperism to re - study diachronic collections in Colombia , ” said Herrera .
“ Discoverieslike these are rightfully limited because they not only expand our knowledge about the past tense but also spread out a window to the diverse possibilities of what we can uncover , ” Palma - Castro added .
The work is published inPalaeontologia Electronica .
