5.5" Inflated Fossil Tortoise (Stylemys) - South Dakota

Inflated Fossil Tortoise (Stylemys) - South Dakota #355959

This is a relatively small, 5.5" long shell (carapace and plastron) of an Oligocene-aged tortoise (Stylemys nebrascensis) from the White River Formation in the Badlands of South Dakota.

It comes with an acrylic display stand.

There is about 3% restoration to the plastron and 6% restoration to the carapace. Restoration is primarily in the form of gap fill along repaired cracks, though a few of the marginal scutes have been completely restored. While red lines along sutures can appear naturally during preservation, these have been painted on to highlight the separation of the scutes.

Stylemys ("pillar turtle") is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise discovered in the United States. They lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia.

These extinct tortoises had primitive jaw muscles, unlike today's tortoises that also display the os transiliens bone, and would have been herbivorous. While Stylemys species did exhibit the same neck structure as modern tortoises, the forelimbs weren't ideal for burrowing.

SPECIES

Stylemys nebrascensis

AGE

Oligocene (~31-35 Million Years)