Archelon
Archelon ischyros
Archelon was the largest known sea turtle and shows how large marine reptiles could grow in Cretaceous seas.
Image: Mike Beauregard · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Sites on today's globe · 1 marker
Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Archelon ischyros
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (Campanian)
- Lived
- 80–74 Ma (80 million years ago)
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Habitat
- Open sea
- Length (estimate)
- 4 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 2,000 kg
Description
Archelon was a giant sea turtle with broad, paddle-like limbs and a leathery shell that was not fully bony. Its beak-like jaws could process shellfish, jellyfish and other soft or hard prey. Its mass and exact length are estimates based on incomplete skeletons. Like modern sea turtles, Archelon must have laid eggs on land, but no nests have been securely attributed to this species.
Habitat
Open inland seas and coastal waters of North America.
Fossil sites
Pierre Shale, South Dakota
Pierre Shale
Cultural profile: United States →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Archelon