6 million years-old turtle fossil found in Panama

A group of researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI ) and the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia discovered the remains of a turtle that lived approximately 6 million years ago. The discovery occurred on the Caribbean coast, on Piña beach.

The shell remains found to correspond to the species of sea turtle Lepidochelys, also known as olive ridley or olive ridley.  The discovery represents the oldest fossil evidence of turtles yet found.

According to the scientists, the discovery of the remains in the Chagres Formation indicates that this turtle lived in the Upper Miocene, a time when the world was cooling and becoming drier, with the accumulation of ice at the poles, the fall of sea level and less rain.