MADRID, 18 (EUROPA PRESS)
Near the Syrian city of Afrin, far from the present-day coast, an international research team has discovered a previously unknown sea turtle fossil.
The species Syriemys lelunensis, recently named under the auspices of the University of São Paulo, dates from the early Eocene, about 50 million years ago. The find includes a fully preserved interior impression of the shell, as well as parts of the ventral shell, pelvis, and hindlimbs. This turtle is the first fossil vertebrate species recently described from Syria.
The well-preserved oval shell of the fossil sea turtle measures 53 centimeters long and 44 centimeters wide.
The turtle, named Syriemys lelunensis, is the first and only recently described fossil vertebrate species from Syria. Furthermore, the find was confirmed as the oldest evidence of the Stereogenyini, an extinct line of side-necked turtles whose origins may date back more than ten million years. The collection includes a fully preserved internal shell cast, several ventral shell bones, pelvic bones, and hind limbs, some of which are included in the cast. In addition, tiny foraminifera were extracted from the rock surrounding the fossil. These shelled protozoa were crucial in determining the age of the fossil turtle.
"Today, all members of the side-necked turtle family are semi-aquatic freshwater turtles. However, the now-extinct Stereogenyini also inhabited saltwater habitats. Therefore, their fossils can be found all over the world: in South America, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and East Asia," explains Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen, who participated in the research, in a statement.
Present-day Syria was completely covered by water during the Cretaceous and until the end of the Miocene, that is, from 145 million years ago to about 5.3 million years ago. Given this extensive marine history, the discovery of a sea turtle there is no surprise to Ferreira. "However, the discovery of Syriemys lelunensis adds a new geographic location to the distribution of the Stereogenyini, and there are clear indications of a possible origin for this group of sea turtles in the Mediterranean region."
