{"id":631939,"date":"2026-06-10T22:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631939\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:10:13","slug":"fossil-discovery-in-patagonia-reveals-new-species-of-horned-turtle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631939\/","title":{"rendered":"Fossil Discovery in Patagonia Reveals New Species of Horned Turtle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paleontologists have identified a new species of meiolaniform turtle from northern Patagonia, Argentina, that lived during the Maastrichtian age, just before the asteroid-triggered mass extinction that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

An artist\u2019s impression of Patagoniaemys aeschyli. Image credit: Nawel Vazquez \/ Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales \u2018Bernardino Rivadavia\u2019 \/ CONICET.<\/p>\n

The newly-identified turtle species lived in what is now Patagonia during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, between 72 and 67 million years ago.<\/p>\n

Named Patagoniaemys aeschyli, it belonged to a lineage that included some of the most unusual turtles ever known.<\/p>\n

Meiolaniformes<\/a> are famous for heavily armored bodies and, in some species, horned skulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeiolaniformes represent a group of turtles that includes the well-known horned species Niolamia argentina (Patagonia) and Meiolania platyceps (Australia),\u201d said lead author Dr. Federico Agnolin, a paleontologist at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales \u2018Bernardino Rivadavia,\u2019 the Universidad Maim\u00f3nides and CONICET, and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cUncontroversial meiolaniforms are known from Early Cretaceous to Pleistocene times in southern landmasses, including South America, Australia, and New Caledonia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fossilized remains of Patagoniaemys aeschyli were unearthed from the Los Alamitos Formation in Argentina\u2019s R\u00edo Negro province.<\/p>\n

The specimen includes portions of the skull base, shell fragments, vertebrae, and limb bones, making it one of the more informative meiolaniforms from the region.<\/p>\n

The paleontologists estimated that the Patagoniaemys aeschyli\u2019s shell measured about 80 cm (2.6 feet) in length.<\/p>\n

The shell was broad and relatively low, unlike the more strongly domed shells seen in some later relatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shell is relatively thick at the base of the peripheral plates, where it shows a series of robust thick bumps, especially in the posterior parts of marginal,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe external surface of the shell ornamentation is composed of small pits and grooves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond identifying a new species, the scientists explored how turtles fared during the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event that occurred 66 million years ago.<\/p>\n

By examining fossil diversity in Patagonia, they found evidence that several turtle lineages persisted across the boundary separating the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discovery of Patagoniaemys aeschyli confirms the presence of at least two meiolaniform lineages in the latest Cretaceous of southern South America,\u201d the scientists concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe marked taxonomic continuity between Maastrichtian and Danian assemblages suggests that the end-Cretaceous extinction event did not severely impact Patagonian turtles, supporting a scenario of lineage persistence and limited faunal turnover among southern chelonians.\u201d<\/p>\n

A paper<\/a> describing the discovery was published on March 26, 2026 in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Federico L. Agnolin et al. 2026. A new meiolaniform turtle from the Maastrichtian of Northern Patagonia, Argentina. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 71 (1): 173-184; doi: 10.4202\/app.01268.2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paleontologists have identified a new species of meiolaniform turtle from northern Patagonia, Argentina, that lived during the Maastrichtian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[14632,213947,19472,213948,2928,59,213949,213950,19475,213951,213952,90,25052,19479,19838,213953,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-631939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-argentina","tag-carapace","tag-cretaceous","tag-end-cretaceous-extinction","tag-fossil","tag-gb","tag-los-alamitos-formation","tag-meiolaniformes","tag-patagonia","tag-patagoniaemys","tag-patagoniaemys-aeschyli","tag-science","tag-shell","tag-south-america","tag-turtle","tag-turtle-shell","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}