New Fossil Shows How the Turtle Got Its Shell

Odontochelys semitestacea, the oldest turtle fossil yet, has a fully formed lower shell, or plastron, but lacks a fully formed upper shell

By Kate Wong

Scientific American February 2009

…

Odontochelys possesses a plastron—the flat, lower half of the shell that protects the animal’s soft belly—but lacks the domed upper half. What this suggests, Li and his colleagues say, is that the shell evolved from the bottom up. In addition, the deposits that yielded the fossil indicate that this animal lived in a marine environment. If so, the plastron would have shielded the turtle’s underside from predators approaching from below.

To read the full article go to:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=new-fossil-origin-of-the-turtle-discovered

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THURS., FEB 12 @ 1PM EASTERN GROUP CALL WITH SCIENTISTS
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