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Two ancient plant fossils collected by a Colombian priest more than 50 years ago are actually uncommon hatchling turtles from the age of the dinosaurs , a new study has found .
Padre Gustavo Huertas collected the foliage - shaped fossils near the town of Villa de Leyva between the 1950s and 1970s and subsequently identify them as out plants . But the author of a fresh study , published Dec. 7 in the journalPalaeontologia Electronica , have now revealed they are n’t leaves at all — they ’re lilliputian turtle shells .
A drawing of the turtle’s ribs and backbone superimposed onto the fossil.
The fossils , which measure 2 inches ( 5 centimetre ) and 2.4 inches ( 6 centimeter ) long severally , date back to the Aptian historic period ( 125 million to 113 million years ago ) of theCretaceous(145 million to 66 million years ago ) . They are the first hatchling marine turtles on track record from that flow in northerly South America .
The uncovering was " really surprising , " study lead authorHéctor Palma - Castro , a paleobotany student at the National University of Colombia , enunciate in astatementreleased by the Field Museum in Chicago .
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Huertas originally account the fossil asSphenophyllum colombianum , which aim them in a group of plant that otherwise populate between the LateDevonian(419.2 million to 358.9 million days ago ) and thePermian(298.9 million to 251.9 million years ago ) .
The unusual age and locality of these fossils caught the center of Palma - Castro and his executive program , Colorado - authorFabiany Herrera , the adjunct curator of fossil plant at the Field Museum , and the twosome decided to re - study them .
" As soon as we shoot them , we think , ' this is weird , ' " Herrera said .
The shape and margins of the opine foliage did n’t resemble a plant life , and the lines on the dodo look less like venous blood vessel and more like ivory to Herrera , so he reached out to one of his previous colleagues for help , co - authorEdwin - Alberto Cadena , a fossilist at the University of Rosario in Bogotá .
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The squad determined that the fossils came from the upper shell of marine turtleneck . Based on the size and thickness of the shells and the growth patterns of aliveness turtle , they resolve that the animals were no more than 1 class old when they die .
" This is really really rarified to find hatchlings of fossil turtleneck in general , " Cadena said . " When the turtles are very new , the bones in their shell are very tenuous , so they can be easily destroy . "
The authors wrote in the study that the plate could be fromDesmatochelys padillai — theoldest sea turtleon record — found in the same fossil deposits , but they could n’t be sure without a consummate hatchling systema skeletale . " In fossilology , your imagination and mental ability to be amazed are always put to the psychometric test , " Palma - Castro say . " Discoveries like these are truly special because they not only enlarge our knowledge about the past but also open a windowpane to the various possibilities of what we can expose . "
These are n’t the first Cretaceous fossil from Colombia to be misidentified . Previous enquiry has revealed that a propose cocoa plant was really part of a marine reptile jaw , while a presumed Cretaceous yield turned out to be a banana tree - shaped rock , according to the study .
" We resolved a small paleobotanical whodunit , but more importantly , this cogitation shows the want to re - study historical collections in Colombia , " Herrera enunciate .
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