An 11-year-old rock hunter has uncovered an almost complete turtle shell dating to roughly 48 million years ago. That intact shell secured a rare glimpse into a vanished river world before weather ...

In 2025, 11-year-old Touren Pope was rock hunting with his grandparents in southwest Wyoming when he stumbled upon something extraordinary: a prehistoric fossilized turtle shell. Experts examined the ...

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - What started as a one-night grassroots effort to feed people during the government shutdown in October has turned into a permanent resource in South College Station.

Turtles are famous for their shells, but this feature is far more than a protective covering. A turtle’s shell is actually fused to its skeleton, meaning its ribs and spine became part of a living ...

Touren Pope was rockhounding in the Greater Green River Basin when he found a remarkable foot-long fossil. It turned out to be the shell of a soft-shelled turtle. When it was freed from the rock ...

Turtles today are often slow-moving, modestly sized creatures, but their ancient relatives were quite different. Long before modern turtles evolved into the familiar forms we recognize today, some ...

Cartoons often suggest turtles wear shells like removable armor. Those stories show turtles stepping out, swapping shells, or treating them like clothing. Biology disagrees. A turtle shell is not an ...

A sea turtle’s shell is living bone fused directly to its spine and ribs. It is not a detachable shield or an external case, as certain quirky cartoons have shown. The shell grows with the turtle, ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. This one-ton turtle once ruled South America’s rivers — ...

Turtles are fascinating creatures with a rich history of evolution that spans over 200 million years. One of their most distinctive features is their shell, which not only serves as a protective ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The broad-shelled river turtle (Chelodina expansa) falls into a group known as side-neck turtles.