Archelon
| Archelon Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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 Skeleton held in Yale University
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Archelon ischyros Wieland, 1896 |
- ARCHELON is also a sea-turtle conservation society, see ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece
Archelon is a genus of extinct sea turtle, the largest that has ever lived. The largest Archelon fossil, found in the Pierre Shale of South Dakota in the 1970s, measures more than 13.5 feet (4 meters) long, and about 16 feet wide from flipper to flipper. It was a sea going turtle, related to present day Leatherback Sea Turtles. Its fossils date to 70 million years ago in the Cretaceous period, when a shallow sea covered most of central North America. The live weight of an Archelon ischyros is estimated at more than 4,500 pounds (2200 kilograms).
 Map of North America during the Cretaceous period. |
 Artist's rendition |
External links
References
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