5.8" Inflated Fossil Tortoise (Stylemys) - South Dakota

This is a nice, 5.8" long specimen of an Oligocene aged tortoise (Stylemys) from Pennington County, South Dakota. It is in good condition, inflated, with a small degree of crushing.

Stylemys ("pillar turtle") is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise discovered in the United States. They lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia.

These extinct tortoises had primitive jaw muscles, unlike today's tortoises that 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 weren't ideal for burrowing.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Stylemys nebrascensis
LOCATION
Pennington County, South Dakota
FORMATION
White River Formation
SIZE
5.8" long, 4.6" wide, 2.0" tall
ITEM
#113118
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