Sea Turtle fossils found in Italy

In the rocky cliffs that extend into the Adriatic Sea near Ancona, Italy, rock climbers found interesting imprints in the limestone. The limestone was filled with moon-shaped marks that appeared in pairs and round divots. Researchers at the site think that the marks are the traces of an ancient sea turtle dating back up to 80 million years.

However, people cannot access the limestone slabs because they are in a danger area of the park because of the hazard of rockfalls. The imprints in the limestone were probably made by some kind of fin moving and scratching the seafloor. There are some possibilities of what kind of animal caused these kinds of marks. These possibilities include: giant mosasaurs, long-necked plesiosaurs, and sea turtles.

Dr. Montanari, a geologist from the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco, and his co-workers saw a similarity to the turtle track fossils. They hypothesized that an apparent buoyant turtle had been moving near the sea floor and skimming the sediment with the tips of its front flippers.

The problem was that Dr. Montanari and his co-workers were having a hard time proving that their hypothesis was correct. They would like ichnologists to come and trace back where these fossils came from.

Murray Gingras, a geologist from the University of Alberta, said, “It’s a good bit of detective work and some deductive reasoning,” but another ichnologist’s reasoning was stronger. According to Spencer Lucas, curator of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque, says that the turtles are propelling themselves forward to push sediment. He said, “As somebody who studies trace fossils, I don’t think the basic data are there to evaluate them.”

He also said that turtles that propel backwards are likely to leave marks on the stone they cling to.

According to Ryan King, a paleontologist from Western Colorado University, he said that it was reasonable to assume that the marks had come from a turtle, but he needed more evidence and proof. He also thought that other researchers could inspect the size and other factors of the tracks to verify the claims. There would not be that much shock to find turtle tracks in the ocean.

Ryan King said, “There’s a lot of missing pieces that still need to be looked at.”

The sea turtles were lucky enough to turn away from the treat they might have had.