🐢💫 Dem Don Find 150 Million Year Pancaked Turtle Fossil Wey Sabi Tell Old Story
⬇️ Pidgin ⬇️ ⬇️ Black American Slang ⬇️ English
Today na Bavaria inside Germany 🇩🇪, but for di Late Jurassic Period, na small-small islands surround with sponge reefs na im dey there. Di water wey salt too much and no get oxygen for di area no gree make wild animal chop di bodies wey die for di lagoons.
Now, afta 150 million years, dis na better news for people wey dey find old bones. For more than 100 years, dem don dey carry full fossils of fish 🐟, marine reptiles, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx comot from di Solnhofen Limestone.
Wetin Dem Find Now 🐢✨
Di latest tins wey dem find na one turtle wey well-well preserved but e flat like pancake. Dem write about am inside one book wey come out Wednesday for di PLOS One. Di way wey dem dey look at dis turtle dey different from any wey dem know today.
Dem call di turtle Solnhofia, na Felix Augustin, one bone finda from University of Tübingen inside Germany, and one person wey write di study, talk am. Dem first call di creature dis name for 1975, but for many years dem only know am from two head wey dem find for Bavaria and Switzerland. For 2000, dem find small-small part join.
Di new one wey dem find – wey one personal person carry comot from where dem dey dig stone near Painten city for Germany – na di full nine-inch animal.
“E be di one wey complete pass and di best preserved so far,” na wetin Márton Rabi, anoda bone finda for University of Tübingen wey write di study, talk.
Dis One Na Beta Find 🎉
Di way wey dem keep dis one good but e also hard small. Dr. Rabi talk say, “We like di bones wey scatter wey we fit turn around dey look well-well, but e no dey possible with dis one, and e no easy to scan am with machine – e flat and big.”
Solnhofen don keep odas like di first sea turtles, wey first dey live for land before dem begin dey adapt to fresh water and later sea water wey dem dey see for Jurassic Bavaria.
“Inside dis south Germany area, di many kind of sea turtles wey dey too much,” Dr. Rabi talk. “Dem pass di one wey dey today, and many never get name.”
Turtles of Di Past 🦕🌊
Dis turtles no dey like dia far-far pikin wey dey today. Solnhofia no get di stiff, special hand wey dey for di water turtles for di Cretaceous Period, e fit no get di special gland wey dey remove salt wey modern sea turtles get.
“Today sea turtles dey everywhere and dem dey travel long journey. Dem sabi live inside water well,” Dr. Rabi talk. “But dis old-time turtles no fit do am.”
But di turtles wey get hand like claw wey dey near coast make am well-well through di rest of di Mesozoic Era, dem change many times inside different animal family. Solnhofia die when di Jurassic finish as sea level come down and European islands small dry, but di family still dey till dinosaurs die, dem even bring out some wey get head like round ball before dem finally go.
Di one wey near am pass today na di Diamondback terrapin, one stripy turtle wey dey manage salt wey dey live for Eastern Seaboard of the United States 🇺🇸.
But di turtles wey fit make am for dat kind area fit no don go forever, Dr. Rabi talk. Di ones wey dey chop food from bottom for coastal dey look like dem change small as sea levels high, and e fit dey make small-small land for water – e fit come back.
“With di ice wey dey melt now, we fit see am again for future,” Dr. Rabi talk. 🌊🐢
Dis na di story of di pancaked turtle fossil wey don tell us old-old story, and e fit still get something to talk for our own time.
NOW IN BLACK AMERICAN SLANG
🐢💫 150-Million-Year-Old Pancaked Turtle Fossil Spillin’ Ancient Secrets
Back in the Late Jurassic Period, the place we now call Bavaria in Germany 🇩🇪 was all ’bout them islands and sponge reefs. Ain’t no oxygen-rich water ’round here, and them critters that passed away in the lagoons ain’t get messed with by scavengers.
Fast forward 150 million years, and paleontologists are celebrating. For more than a century, they been pullin’ up fossils of fish 🐟, reptiles, winged creatures, and even feathered dinosaurs like that Archaeopteryx from the Solnhofen Limestone.
Newest Treasure: A Flat Turtle 🐢✨
Now, we got ourselves a new find: a beautifully kept but flat as a pancake turtle. Just hit the pages of PLOS One this Wednesday, and ain’t no other shelled creature like this one out there today.
They callin’ this turtle Solnhofia. Felix Augustin, one of them science folks at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and a writer on the study, said they first knew ’bout this critter from some skulls found way back in ’75 in Bavaria and Switzerland. Then some more pieces showed up in 2000.
This new piece, though, is the whole nine-inch deal, found near the German city of Painten.
“It’s the realest and the best kept so far,” said Márton Rabi, another one of them science guys from the University of Tübingen.
Gift and Curse 🎉
But this ain’t all fun and games. This keeping-it-real preservation is a gift and a tough one too. “Them bone experts like them loose skeletons, where you can flip ’em around, check ’em out up close,” Dr. Rabi stated. “That ain’t happening with these tight skeletons, and they’re tricky to scan too — they’re mad flat and big.”
Now, Solnhofen done kept other examples of the first sea turtles, ones that started on land, then went to fresh water, and ended up in them shallow sea places like in Jurassic Bavaria.
“In this part of Germany, them sea turtles are something else,” Dr. Rabi noted. “More types than we got now, and lots still need a name.”
How Them Old Turtles Rolled 🦕🌊
These old turtles ain’t like the ones we got now. Solnhofia’s fam didn’t have those hard, specialized paddles like them open-water turtles later on. Might not even have those salt-kicking glands modern sea turtles got.
“Today’s sea turtles, they everywhere, taking those wild, long trips. All about that sea life,” Dr. Rabi said. “Them old Jurassic turtles? They couldn’t roll like that.”
Still, them coastal turtles with claws did alright for themselves, changing up many times, till Solnhofia’s line went extinct when the sea dried up at the end of the Jurassic. But they hung on, even got wild with cue-ball-shaped heads, before finally vanishing.
Closest thing now is the Diamondback terrapin, a striped turtle you find in salty places along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard 🇺🇸.
But hold up, them turtles that can make it in those spots might not be gone for good. Dr. Rabi says them bottom-feeders might be making a comeback, especially with how the sea’s changing.
“With all that ice melting, we could be seeing this again,” he says. 🌊🐢
That’s the real story of this flat turtle fossil, spilling tales from way back and maybe even something ’bout right now.
NOW IN ENGLISH
Headline: Discovery of a 150-Million-Year-Old Pancaked Turtle Fossil Reveals Ancient Secrets 🐢💫
Today, the region is known as Bavaria in Germany 🇩🇪, but during the Late Jurassic Period, it was an archipelago surrounded by sponge reefs. The hyper-saline, oxygen-poor waters of the area prevented scavengers from consuming the bodies of animals that perished in the lagoons.
Now, 150 million years later, this has been great news for paleontologists. For over 100 years, they have been extracting complete fossils of fish 🐟, marine reptiles, pterosaurs, and feathered dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx from the Solnhofen Limestone.
Latest Find: A Pancaked Turtle 🐢✨
The area’s latest discovery is a beautifully preserved, albeit pancaked, turtle. Described in an article published on Wednesday in PLOS One, the specimen represents a unique perspective on marine life unlike any shelled reptile today.
The turtle has been named Solnhofia, according to Felix Augustin, a paleontologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and an author of the study. Originally identified in 1975, the creature was known only from a pair of skulls found in Bavaria and Switzerland until a few more fragmentary remains turned up in 2000.
The new specimen, recovered by a private collector from a quarry near the German city of Painten, is the entire nine-inch animal.
“It’s the most complete and best-preserved one so far,” said Márton Rabi, a paleontologist also at the University of Tübingen, and another author of the study.
A Blessing and a Challenge 🎉
This preservation is both a blessing and a challenge. “Anatomists prefer disarticulated skeletons where we can manipulate the bones and study details of anatomy,” Dr. Rabi said. “That’s not really possible with these articulated skeletons, and they’re not easy to CT scan either — they’re pretty flat and large.”
Solnhofen has preserved other examples of the first sea turtles, which evolved from a land lineage before adapting to freshwater, and then to shallow marine environments like those found in Jurassic Bavaria.
“In this southern German region, the diversity of sea turtles is surprisingly high,” Dr. Rabi noted. “There are far more species than there are today, and many of them have yet to be described.”
Ancient Turtles’ Differences 🦕🌊
These turtles differed significantly from their distant modern relatives. Solnhofia’s lineage lacked the stiffened, specialized paddles seen in open-water turtles in the Cretaceous Period, and it might not have possessed specialized salt-removal glands found in modern sea turtles.
“Modern sea turtles have a near-global distribution and undertake these insanely long migrations. They’re highly adapted to a marine lifestyle,” Dr. Rabi explained. “These marine Jurassic sea turtles were not capable of that.”
Nevertheless, coastal, clawed marine turtles were incredibly successful throughout the remainder of the Mesozoic Era, evolving numerous times in several animal families. While Solnhofia went extinct at the end of the Jurassic as sea levels fell and the European archipelagos briefly dried out, the family persisted through the extinction of the dinosaurs, even evolving bizarre representatives with cue-ball-shaped heads before finally disappearing.
The closest modern equivalent is the Diamondback terrapin, a striped, somewhat salt-tolerant turtle found in brackish estuaries along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States 🇺🇸.
Yet turtles that can thrive in such environments may not have disappeared entirely, Dr. Rabi said. Bottom-feeding coastal turtles seem to have evolved in response to higher sea levels and the resulting proliferation of shallow, continental marine ecosystems — a setting that could reappear.
“With all the ice we’re now melting, we might see this again in the future,” Dr. Rabi remarked. 🌊🐢
This is the story of the pancaked turtle fossil that has told us a tale from ancient times, and it may still have something to say about our own era.
