Rainer Schoch, Stuttgart Natural History Museum and Hans Sues, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
This reconstructed skeleton of Pappochelys features its ribs (in black) and openings in its skull, confirming that turtles did not evolve from early stem-reptiles, as traditionally thought, but are most closely related to lizards among present-day reptiles. In June 2015, an international team of researchers from the United States and Germany discovered this new extinct species of reptile and identified a key missing link in the evolutionary history of turtles.
(Image credir: Rainer Schoch, Stuttgart Natural History Museum and Hans Sues, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History)
