Giant Marine Turtle

Archelon ischyros. South Dakota, USA. 72 million years.

The world’s largest, most complete and heaviest turtle skeleton.

WORLD'S LARGEST
With a length of nearly five meters, Archelon was the largest turtle that ever lived. Over 0070 million years ago it cavorted around in the shallow tropical sea that covered North America in the Cretaceous period. Its enormous size protected it from mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and other carnivorous inhabitants of the seas. It was even able to dispense with an armored shell: the bones of its back were covered by a hard, leathery skin – a tremendous advantage when swimming!
The skeleton was discovered by two private American collectors only in the 1970s and purchased by the NHM in the year 1976. It reached Vienna as a huge “surprise parcel” – enclosed in large limestone blocks. The museum’s technicians had to carefully remove more than 1.5 tons of this exceptionally hard stone with small pneumatic tools before the fossilized bones finally came to light. Many details, such as the front flippers, which were folded beneath the body, were only discovered in the process.
After two years it was obvious that the Vienna skeleton was the largest and most complete of its kind. Today it is researched, measured and studied by paleontologists from all over the world specializing in the evolution of turtles. Casts of it are on display in many of the world’s leading museums.