Earth Sciences Unit: Gaffney Turtle Symposium
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Nearly 70 leading fossil turtle experts met on the weekend of October 17-18, 2009, in Drumheller, Alberta to share the recent discoveries and interpretations on fossil turtles origins, diversity, and history. This included not only the bare bones of this ancient group but also molecular phylogenetics - discovering through DNA data sets the relationships and proposed origins of some of the groups of turtles. Tim Tokaryk, acting head of Palaeontology for the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, contributed information on the diversity of turtles in Saskatchewan, just before the extinction event 65 million years ago.
In a poster contribution, with Don Brinkman of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, they announced that the diversity of turtles found in southern Saskatchewan sediments is very rich. "At least 16 species of turtles are known at this time" Tokaryk says "comparable in number to faunas found south, but much more than the northern faunas in Alberta." At this point in the investigation we know for certain that at least one group didn't survive the biological chaos at the end of the Cretaceous period, that being the tortoise-like Basilemys. The most visible oddity in the fauna is a giant soft-shelled turtle, so far unknown in any other fauna at the time. The material consists of a humerus or upper arm bone that measures over 20 cm in length. Tokaryk, who is also an adjunct professor of biology at the University of Regina says "this puts the shell at over a metre in length". "How this monster fit in an ecosystem already rich in turtles has yet to be understood."
It is quite possible that the number of turtles may increase, or at least become flushed out. This summer Jessica Pitre, temporary staffer of the palaeontology unit, spent considerable time preparing all the fossil turtle material in the collections of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. "There are at least 6 more individual turtles that are going to be used in this study" Tokaryk says.
The Turtle Symposium was in honor of lifelong turtle researcher, Eugene Gaffney of the American Museum of Natural History.
For further information contact the Curator of Earth Sciences.
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