>>5129309
KWAB

>>5129309
they didn't find it's neckbones?

>>5129309
Inbred to Perfection

>>5129354
We have numerous nearly complete skeletons, it turns out that being smashed and slammed is quite an ancient condition in synapsids.

>>5129309
Is this the end goal of the skeem?

>>5129309
Are turtles built like armadillos and pangolins?

>>5129309
These guys are pretty fascinating to me for some reason.

>>5129309
faggot OP making me do an image search to find out this is a Cotylorhynchus

File: Normal turtle vs Leatherb(...).png (1011 KB, 1203x442)

1011 KB PNG

>>5131746
Normally no. The shells of turtles are actually just a fused ribcage with large outer scutes coating it while the shells of armadillos are directly attached to their skin and are composed of osteoderms instead of their ribs. However one turtle is somewhat similar to armadillos with the structure of it's shell and I am surprised this comparison has never been brought up at all. Leatherback turtles have a convergent skeletal structure of a shell made out of a bunch of osteoderms and an actual normal, unfused ribcage right under it.

>>5133452
Are leatherbacks that ancient of a lineage or did they somehow re-evolve a ribcage?

>>5133452
>>5133628
yeah I've somehow never heard of this too, do you have more info?

File: green turtle skeleton and(...).png (1.17 MB, 1184x512)

1.17 MB PNG

>>5133628
From what I can recall they are the last of their lineage Dermochelyidae and closely related to the cretaceous Protostegidae, another lineage of turtles with skin covered backs and unfused ribs. The earliest turtles we know of in the cryptodira sub-group (turtles that can retract their necks and the group leatherbacks descended from) had a fused ribcage so with that knowledge it does seem at some point in time they re-evolved a separate ribcage and got rid of a true shell in replacement for a new one. You can even see something similar in modern sea turtles species unrelated to leatherbacks were the ribs of their shell seems to be in a weird perpetual middle state of this transition.
>>5133634
Not much info than what I researched and realized. It seems to be a surprisingly obscure fact about these guys.

Picrel has a green sea turtle skeleton and a leatherback without it's shell.

>>5133739
God turtles did some disgusting things to their anatomy in order to have a shell

>>5133739
Fascinating.

>>5133743
they're still here 230 million years later so it seems it was worth it in the end.

>>5133743
disgusting how?

>>5133452
>>5133739
love interesting turtle facts