Proganochelys - The 210 Million Year Old Land Turtle

The next major fossil find is a land turtle that dates back to 210 million years. This animal is called Proganochelys, meaning "first turtle". It has a full shell unlike Odontochelys, as well as several other modern turtle features such as a beak instead of teeth and its shoulders and hips inside its ribcage, which forms the top part of the shell.

Until the recent discovery of the far more primitive Odontochelys, this most ancient of turtles served only to show for how long turtles have been in their current form.

Fast Evolution

Now we can see that the development of the full shell and the beak occurred relatively quickly after the initial development of just the plastron in the ancestral turtle. Within the space of ten million years, from 220 to 210 million years ago, turtles had acquired pretty much their current form and have kept it ever since.

There are some small differences between Proganochelys and modern turtles though, as would be expected. The tail was longer on this animal and covered in heavy spikes and a club at the end, like the dinosaur Ankylosaurus. We can only assume that it was used for a similar purpose, as a defense against predators.

Also, this turtle could not retract its head into its shell. Instead the neck was protected by a covering of small spikes growing from the skin.

Successful On Land

The heavy weaponry on the tail strongly suggests that Proganochelys spent most if not all its time on land. Such structures would be worse than useless under water as they would create a lot of drag and could not be wielded with any speed or force.

So not only had this virtually modern turtle appeared within 10 million years of Odontochelys, but it had adapted to life on land. It seems that turtles are free to move into any unoccupied environment!

In life this animal was about one meter long. It has been found in what is now Germany and Thailand, and presumably lived in the spaces in between also.

Descendents Of Proganochelys

So far there are no fossil indications that the land turtle Proganochelys gave rise to any other species, but the record is far, far from complete.

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