Archelon - (pronounced: ARK-eh-lon)

Archelon was huge marine turtle (a chelonian), the largest that has ever lived. Archelon belonged to the Class Reptilia (reptiles), Order Chelonia (turtles, tortoises and terrapins), Suborder Cryptodira, Family Protostegidae (sea turtles from the late Cretaceous period with flippers and minimal shells), Genus Archelon.

 

It was a sea going turtle, related to present day Leatherback Sea Turtles. It measured more than 13.5 feet (4 metres) long and about 16 feet wide from flipper to flipper. Archelon's shell was not like that of modern-day turtles, it did not have the numerous shell bones of modern-day tortoises. Archelon's back probably had a leathery covering or horny plates over a bony framework on its back. Archelon had a wide, flattened shell, paddle-like legs, a long, narrow head, weak jaws and a short, pointed tail. Archelon had a solidly-roofed skull with no opening (except for eyes and nostrils). It swam using its paddle-like flippers and legs. The live weight of an Archelon is estimated at more than 4,500 pounds (2200 kilograms).

Archelon was a carnivore (meat-eater). Because of its very weak jaws and toothless beak, it may have eaten jellyfish as its main diet. Archelon lived in the seas in what is now North America; fossils have been found in Kansas and South Dakota, USA. Its fossils date to 70 million years ago in the Cretaceous period, when a shallow sea covered most of central North America.

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.

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Sauropsida

Order: Testudines

Suborder: Cryptodira

Family: Protostegidae

Genus: Archelon


Binomial name:
Archelon ischyros