Archelon

Name meaning: First/Early Turtle

Time Period: Campanian (Late Cretaceous) 80.21–74.21

Locations: South Dakota/Wyoming

Taxonomy: Testudines-Cryptodira-Protostegidae

Subspecies: A. schyros

Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~

Archelon is the largest Turtle ever described, reaching lengths of 15 feet and weights between 2.5 to 3.5 tons. Being such a large animal, Archelon had to find different methods of feeding, because of this Archelon had developed a strong hooked beak that could crack through hard-shelled animals such as mollusks, oysters, crabs, and nautiloids along with the animals modern Sea turtles ate, such as jellyfish, squid, and kelp. Archelon may have resembled a Leatherback turtle although its family ‬Protostegidae has no living relatives. Archelon was found living in the Western Interior Seaway, a newly formed sea when the midwestern United States flooded, dividing the East and West into two continents: Appalachia and Laramidia. Archelon went extinct before the K-T extinction for reasons many modern species of sea turtles face today, such as getting their nest poached, climate change causing the Western Interior Seaway to be drain leading to the current midwest. Animals Archelon coexisted with are sea birds like Hesperornis and long necked Plesiosaurs like Elasmosaurus. Predators it would have to worry about like the shark Cretoxyrhina and the massive marine reptiles like Mosasaurus of which may have been able to crack their shells. You could also expect many other common ocean animals like fish, crustaceans and various other invertabraes.

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History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~

Holotype YPM 3000 was discovered in 1895 by George Reber Wieland the specimen was mostly complete; the most notable exception was that a skull was missing. A skull would quickly be found only two years later. In 1992 the largest Archelon was found and named Brigitta and was preserved with remarkable quality.

Media Deptictions ~ ~ ~ ~

Jurassic World Evolution 2 Featured in the Marine Species Pack along with Nothosaurus, Dunkleosteus, and Shonisaurus It is a phenomenal design that is both expressive and accurate. It has very vibrant colors, including red, green, purple, black, and so on. Its addition along with the Nothosaurus, brought about the lagoon rock platform, a place for the lagoon animals to rest oand a convenient way of seeing them outside of the water. Archelon is also the only marine species that lays eggs in the game, despite the creation lab ui displaying eggs for all other lagoon species even though they would not laying any.

Prehistoric Planet Featured in the first scene of the show, A Tyrannosaurus Rex and its young swim to a nearby island where it smells an Archelon Carcass. The adult flips over the massive turtle to feed on the underbelly, while it lets the juveniles wander the beach in search of their own food, learning to hunt with the recently hatched Archelon. Archelon get time in the spotlight but I like it showcases how Megafauna like itself can impact various surrounding eccosystems