What does archelon look like?

Archelon had a leathery carapace instead of the hard shell seen in sea turtles. The carapace may have featured a row of small ridges, each peaking at 2.5 or 5 cm (1 or 2 in) in height.

1. Is archelon real?
2. What animal is archelon similar to?
3. Why is archelon extinct?
4. How big is an archelon?
5. What did the archelon eat?
6. When did the archelon turtle go extinct?
7. What is the biggest sea turtle ever?
8. Was there a dinosaur that looked like a turtle?
9. Who found the archelon?
10. When did archelon first appear?

Is archelon real?

Archelon, extinct giant sea turtle known from fossilized remains found in North American rocks of the Late Cretaceous epoch (100 million to 66 million years ago). Archelon, protected by a shell similar to that found in modern sea turtles, reached a length of about 3.5 m (12 feet).

What animal is archelon similar to?

Sea turtles have been around for more than 100 million years, and Archelon is the largest marine turtle known to ever have been in the ocean. This ancient reptile is most closely related to today's leatherbacks and lived during the Late Cretaceous period.

Why is archelon extinct?

Archelon is believed to have survived the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs because of their slow metabolisms and aquatic lifestyles. Having a slow metabolism allows them to survive on less food therefore requiring less energy to hunt for it.

How big is an archelon?

Archelon, a giant sea turtle that lived roughly 80 to 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, grew to sizes roughly 13 feet in length and is one of the largest sea turtles ever to live on the planet.

What did the archelon eat?

Archelon was a slow mover and found most of its food drifting near the sea surface. It had little need to dive deep except when hibernating on the seabed. It was an omnivorous grazer, sweeping up drifting fish, jellyfish and dead carrion as well as plants.

When did the archelon turtle go extinct?

Archelon, other turtles (chelonians), and reptiles may have descended from captorhinids, primitive anapsids that lived during the Early Carboniferous period, about 340 million years ago and went extinct at the end of the Triassic period, about 250 million years ago.

What is the biggest sea turtle ever?

The largest leatherback ever recorded was almost 10 feet (305 cm) from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail and weighed in at 2,019 pounds (916 kg). Weight: 660 to 1,100 pounds (300 – 500 kg). Diet: Leatherbacks have delicate, scissor-like jaws.

Was there a dinosaur that looked like a turtle?

Carbonemys cofrinii is an extinct podocnemidid turtle known from the Middle Paleocene Cerrejón Formation of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin in northeastern Colombia. The formation is dated at around 60 to 57 million years ago, starting at about five million years after the KT extinction event.

Who found the archelon?

In 2002, while hiking along the Sheyenne River valley near Cooperstown, Griggs County, Peter Mack of Christine, North Dakota (formerly of Cooperstown) discovered a portion of the lower jaw and several other bones of the giant sea turtle called Archelon (Figures 1 and 2).

When did archelon first appear?

Research history. The first specimen of Archelon (YPM 3000) was collected from the Pierre Shale of South Dakota by Dr. G.R. Wieland in 1895 and described by him the following year (Wieland, 1896).