Are remains of prehistoric giant tortoises in central … – Ideal Digital

This is the largest specimens found in Europe. Turtles reached two meters in length. A scientific study has revealed the existence of gender Titanochelon new animal, a giant tortoise that inhabited Europe two million years ago and whose fossils found in Madrid indicate that the species is more giant turtle.

“This is not just any but the largest turtle that lived in Europe, with a size that could exceed the notorious tortoises currently living in the Galapagos Islands,” explains researcher UNED, Adam Perez García.

This discovery is the result of analysis of the funds from the collections of the National Museum of Natural Sciences, performed by researchers from the Open University and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).

The study, published in “Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society,” has provided sufficient information to know the family relationship, the origin and distribution of European giant turtles.

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The investigation began in 2005 and, by reconstructing the fossils found in the early twentieth century historic sites of significance located in Vallecas, University City and Alcalá de Henares ( Madrid), it was found that the Madrid-kind “is the most abundant and representative of all European giant tortoises,” says Perez-Garcia.

In fact, shells and other bones of the skeleton of the species Spanish, Titanochelon bolivari, have served to confirm that in Spain lived a differentiated European tortoise species.

With the data obtained on the skull, the shell and appendicular skeleton, scientists can now “see how fifteen million years ago, herds of giant tortoises wandered around what is now the United Way, “says Perez-Garcia.

The Titanochelon was a giant tortoise that inhabited Europe from the Miocene and Pleistocene, ie, from about twenty million years ago to less than two million years ago.

Its shell could measure up to two meters, was relatively low but broad dimensions and limbs, very robust, were covered ossified by large scales, for a protective shell.