Fossilised bones hint at enormous turtle

The 75-million-year-old MEGA TURTLE: Fossilised bones reveal enormous scale of ancient sea reptile An amateur palaeontologist discovered the 'new' fossil, which is half of a humerus, in Monmouth County, New Jersey in 2012 It matched the other half of a fossil that was discovered 162 years previously and has been kept at Drexel University, in Philadelphia Until 2012 the 'first' half of the fossil was the only type specimen of the genus and species - Atlantochelys mortoni - an ancient sea turtle The turtle lived between 70 million and 75 million years ago and measured over 10ft long. Amateur palaeontologist Gregory Harpel discovered the bone on an embankment upstream of his usual fossil-hunting haunt in Monmouth County, New Jersey, where he was searching for fossilised shark teeth A 3-D scan of the two broken turtle limb fossils from Atlantocheyls mortoni shows a detailed view of their surfaces. Paleontologists from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and from the New Jersey State Museum concluded that these two fossils came from the same animal, despite being discovered separately at least 163 years apart It was originally named and described by 19th century naturalist Louis Agassiz as the first, or type specimen, of its genus and species, Atlantochelys mortoni. The 70 to 75million-year-old species may have resembled modern loggerhead turtles, but was much larger than any sea turtle species alive today, at around 10ft long With a complete limb, they have calculated that the animal was about 10ft from tip to tail, making it one of the largest sea turtles ever known.