Scientists say they've uncovered
a pile of 1,800 Jurassic turtle skeletons in China that had been swept into a
mass grave millions of years ago.
The fossilized mesa chelonia
turtles were found in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang in what
paleontologists call a "bone bed" with some of the shells stacked up
on top of each other in the rock.
Some 160 million years ago,
these turtles (identified as a species in the genus Annemys) likely had
gathered in one of the remaining waterholes during a very dry period, awaiting
rain, which apparently came too late, the researchers say. When all the water
left in the hole dried up, the turtles died.
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