They have just discovered a turtle bigger than a car and it is Spanish

Turtles are marine animals that have been attracting the attention of humans for millennia. To this day, scientists continue to discover new things about them. Including, the size they can get.

Paleontologists have discovered the fossil remains of one of the largest turtles that ever lived. With a size similar to that of a B segment car (utility), it traveled the seas Europe during the age of the dinosaurs. It was an impressive turtle.

The new species, which lived about 70 million years agohas been named Leviathanochelys aenigmatica, which translates as enigma giant beast turtle. And the name is appropriate: the creature is estimated to have been 3.74m longwhich makes it one of the largest known tortoises.

It is the largest found in Europe. Interestingly, though they look alike, the tortoises of ancient North America and Europe weren’t all that closely related: they grew to these gigantic sizes independently.

In the case of Leviathanochelys, the team says it was likely thanks to the spacious inland oceans that covered much of Europe at the time. It seems that it is so old that the Mediterranean Sea did not exist at that time.

The discovery initially came about by accident., as a hiker stumbled upon some bones in the Pyrenees mountains of northern Spain. Paleontologists followed up and discovered the giant tortoise’s pelvis, along with the back section of its shell.

The detail that made the discovery on land possible

And while that may not sound like much, some unusual traits allowed to the team conclude that it belonged to a totally new species, despite the fact that they found the bones on land and far away from the sea.

One strange feature in particular stood out: a section of bone that sticks out to one side of the pelvis. It is the first time that this structure has been observed in a species of turtle, alive or dead.

The team says that more bones will have to be found before more information about the species can be determined. That includes a more definitive estimate of its size. Without a doubt, the tortoise it can be said that it is Spanish and very large.