[Merged]Fifty million year old mating turtles found

[Still Waters]

It is the first time fossils of vertebrates - animals with backbones that include ourselves - have been caught in the act.

Nine pairs of fossils - the females identified by their shorter tails - were found in a the Messel Pit, near Darmstadt in Germany. It is believed the copulating couples were overcome by poisonous gas at the bottom of a volcanic crater.

Dr Walter Joyce, of the University of Tuebingen, Germany, said the turtles belonged to an extinct species known as Allaeochelys crassesculpta and anatomical evidence revealed each pair had a male and female member.

Their upper shell would have reached almost two feet in length and been more than a foot wide. Males had much longer tails protruding beyond the margin of the shell, whereas the females' were short enough to remain inside.

Dr Joyce said: "We demonstrate for the first time all couples contain one male and one female individual and the tails of some males are aligned with those of the female."

http://www.telegraph...-years-ago.html

[Englishgent]

Oh well. At least they probably died wth smiles on thier faces

[Lilly]

Oh well. At least they probably died wth smiles on thier faces

My thoughts exactly. BTW, do turtles smile?

[Bling]

http://www.interestingstories.net/mating-turtles-frozen-for-fifty-million-years/