Protostega

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Protostega
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: †Protostegidae
Genus: †Protostega

Protostega ('first roof') is an extinct genus of sea turtle. With a length of 3 m (10 ft), it is the second-largest turtle that ever lived, second only to the giant Archelon.[1]

Like the modern leatherback sea turtle, the largest living turtle at 2,70 m (9 ft) long, Protostega's carapace lacked scutes, making it weaker but also lighter. Protostega probably fed on slow ocean creatures such as jellyfish and shellfish.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Zangerl, Rainer (May 1953). "The vertebrate fauna of the Selma Formation of Alabama, Part III. The turtles of the Family Protostegidae". Chicago Field Museum Mem. 3 (3). 
  • Cope, Edward Drinker (1872). "A description of the genus Protostega". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: 422–433. 
  • Cope, Edward Drinker (1878). "Note of fossils obtained by Mr. Russell S. Hill, including bones of Protostega gigas". The American Naturalist 12: 137. 
  • Hay, O.P. (1895). "On certain portions of the skeleton of Protostega gigas". Field Columbian Museum, Publications, Zoological Series 1: 57–62. 
  • Hay, O.P. (1898). "On Protostega, the systematic position of Dermochelys, and the morphogeny of the chelonian carapace and plastron". The American Naturalist 32: 929–948. 
  • Sjimada, Kenshu; M.J. Everhart, G. E. Hooks III (2002). "Ichthyodectid fish and protostegid turtle bitten by the Late Cretaceous lamniform shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22 (3): 106. 
  • Sternberg, C.H. (1905). "Protostega gigas and other Cretaceous reptiles and fishes from the Kansas chalk". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 19: 123–128. 
  • Wieland, G. R. (1898). "The protostegan plastron". American Journal of Science 5: 15–20. 
  • Wieland, G. R. (1906). "The osteology of Protostega". Carnegie Museum, Memoirs 2: 279–298. 
  • Wieland, G. R. (1906). "Plastron of the Protosteginae". Carnegie Museum, Annals 4: 8–14. 
  • Wieland, G. R. (1909). "Revision of the Ptotostegidae". American Journal of Science 27: 101–130. 
  • Williston, S. W. (1902). "On the hind limb of Protostega". American Journal of Science 13: 276–278. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lutz, Peter L.; John A. Musick (1996). The Biology of Sea Turtles. CRC PRess, 432pp.. ISBN 0849384222. 

[edit] External links

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