Misidentified Fossil Revealed to be Baby Turtle

Initially classified as a plant, the fossil is now believed to be a hatchling of one of the world’s oldest extinct turtle species.

A fossil first identified as a plant 20 years ago has been reclassified as a baby turtle, according to a study published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica.
The fossil was part of a collection gathered by Colombian priest Padre Gustavo Huertas between the 1950s and 1970s, and was initially classified as a type of fossil plant dating back to the Early Cretaceous period.
Researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia re-examined the fossil and noticed key features that suggested it could be bone, not plant material.
Paleontologist Edwin-Alberto Cadena, who specializes in turtles and other vertebrates, confirmed that the fossil was the upper shell of a turtle, likely a hatchling of one of the world’s oldest extinct turtle species.
The team plans to conduct further examinations of the specimen, including using micro-computer tomography to examine the bone and anatomy in more detail.