Be wise. Be brave. Be tricky. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} slithytove) wrote,@ 2008-10-09 01:27:00 |
|
For some reason just being a turtle is an idea that came along and just really works
How the Turtle Got Its Shell
Bone fragments from a 210-million year-old, land-dwelling reptile from New Mexico suggest that the earliest turtles didn't have much of a shell at all.
Over millions of years, rows of protective armour plates gradually fused together and to the reptile's vertebrae, eventually creating a complete shell.
"Turtles ultimately originated from something that looked like an armadillo," says lead author Walter Joyce, a palaeontologist at the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut.
...
Exactly why turtles evolved their shell remains a mystery, Joyce says. A full shell might offer added protection and stability. And the proof could be in the pudding – their body plan is the world's oldest, changing little over 200 million years. "For some reason just being a turtle is an idea that came along and just really works," he says.
"And the proof could be in the pudding – their body plan is the world's oldest, changing little over 200 million years." This sounds suspiciously like the Chelonic Principle to me.
How the Turtle Got Its Shell
Bone fragments from a 210-million year-old, land-dwelling reptile from New Mexico suggest that the earliest turtles didn't have much of a shell at all.
Over millions of years, rows of protective armour plates gradually fused together and to the reptile's vertebrae, eventually creating a complete shell.
"Turtles ultimately originated from something that looked like an armadillo," says lead author Walter Joyce, a palaeontologist at the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut.
...
Exactly why turtles evolved their shell remains a mystery, Joyce says. A full shell might offer added protection and stability. And the proof could be in the pudding – their body plan is the world's oldest, changing little over 200 million years. "For some reason just being a turtle is an idea that came along and just really works," he says.
"And the proof could be in the pudding – their body plan is the world's oldest, changing little over 200 million years." This sounds suspiciously like the Chelonic Principle to me.
