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It was a creature that one scientist said resembled "a strange, gluttonous lizard that swallowed a small Frisbee."
But a sophisticated skull analysis showed that this reptile called Eunotosaurus africanus that lived in southern Africa 260 million years ago is actually the earliest-known turtle, even though it had no shell, researchers said on Wednesday.
Eunotosaurus, about a foot (30 cm) long, possessed wide and flat ribs that gave it a distinctly rounded and turtle-like profile. It mixed features of its lizard-like ancestors with emerging turtle-like characteristics that evolved over tens of millions of years into familiar turtle traits, the researchers said.
"Think of your neighbourhood box turtle, but much more flattened and with scaly skin and a long tail," said New York Institute of Technology anatomy Professor Gaberiel Bever, describing Eunotosaurus. "And teeth, it had a mouthful of them."
Only later did turtles become toothless.
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