Bargain, 6.4" Fossil Tortoise (Stylemys) - Nebraska

This is a 6.4" long specimen of an Oligocene aged tortoise (Stylemys nebrascensis) collected from the White River Formation. It was collected from the Shalimar Ranch near Harrison, Nebraska. It is fairly compressed and there are a number of repairs with some restoration work to fill in gaps, hence the bargain price.

Stylemys ("pillar turtle") is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise discovered in the United States. The genus lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia
These extinct tortoises had primitive jaw muscles, unlike today's tortoises, which 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 were unsuitable for burrowing.