First side-necked turtle ever discovered in UK

Date:
June 13, 2023
Source:
University of Portsmouth
Summary:
The first side-necked turtle ever to be found in the UK has been
discovered by an amateur fossil collector and palaeontologists.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The first side-necked turtle ever to be found in the UK has been
discovered by an amateur fossil collector and palaeontologists at the University of Portsmouth.

The fossil remains are the earliest of a so-called side-necked
pan-pleurodiran turtle, named as such because they fold their neck into
their shell sideways when threatened. This does mean they can only see
out with one eye.

Originally found on a National Trust beach on the Isle of Wight, the
turtle fossil is an almost complete shell with cervical, dorsal and
caudal vertebrae, scapulae, pelvic girdle and appendicular bones. Sadly,
the skull was missing.

Lead author, Megan Jacobs, said: "This is an amazing discovery because
it's the first time this type of turtle has been found in the UK. Even
more exciting is that we used a new technique of radiometric dating to determine the age of the fossil beyond any doubt. And to top it off, CT scanning revealed all the tiny bones inside. It's really incredible for
what looks like a rolled beach pebble!" Megan and colleagues dissected minerals from inside the turtle shell and analysed them for uranium
and lead. By measuring the ratio of lead to radioactive uranium, they established the turtle was from the Lower Cretaceous period, around 127
million years ago.

The fossil was originally found on the foreshore at Brook Bay on
the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight by fossil collector Steve
Burbridge. This part of the coast is well-known for fossil vertebrates
that come from the cliff and foreshore exposures of the upper part of
the famous Isle of Wight fossil beds of the Wessex Formation.

This is the first time that radiometric dating has been used on a fossil
from the Wessex formation.

Megan added: "We've nicknamed the turtle 'Burby' after Steve who very
kindly donated the specimen to the Dinosaur Isle Museum at Sandown on
the Isle of Wight." The researchers also used cutting-edge micro CT
scanning at the University of Portsmouth's Future Technology Centre to
discern various tiny bones. This advanced imaging technique provided
invaluable insight into the structure and composition of the turtle's
shell, without damaging it.

Steve said: "It's beyond my wildest dreams to have one of my finds
published. I could never have guessed it was such an incredibly important fossil. It's so wonderful to see all the tiny bones inside too."
Geologist, Dr Catherine Mottram, from the University of Portsmouth's
School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences is one of the
paper's co-authors.

She said: "It is exciting that we have been able to use cutting edge radiometric dating techniques to provide absolute constraints for this important sequence for the first time." Other co-authors include Ada'n Pe'rez-Garci'a and Marcos Marti'n-Jime'nez from UNED, Spain, Professor
David Martill, Andrew Gale and Charles Wood from the University of
Portsmouth, and Oliver Mattsson from Dinosaur Expeditions.

The paper is published in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Plants_&_Animals
# Frogs_and_Reptiles # Evolutionary_Biology # New_Species
# Animals
o Fossils_&_Ruins
# Fossils # Paleontology # Early_Mammals # Dinosaurs
* RELATED_TERMS
o Sea_turtle o Paralititan o Richard_Leakey o Homo_antecessor
o Feathered_dinosaurs o Homo_heidelbergensis o Fossil o
Petrified_wood

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Portsmouth. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Fossil_of_turtle ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Megan L. Jacobs, Ada'n Pe'rez-Garci'a, Marcos Marti'n-Jime'nez,
Catherine
M. Mottram, David M. Martill, Andrew S. Gale, Oliver L. Mattsson,
Charles Wood. A well preserved pan-pleurodiran (Dortokidae) turtle
from the English Lower Cretaceous and the first radiometric date
for the Wessex Formation (Hauterivian-Barremian) of the Isle of
Wight, United Kingdom.

Cretaceous Research, 2023; 150: 105590 DOI:
10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105590 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230613190825.htm

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