The Largest Turtle Skeleton Ever Found

 This is the largest turtle skeleton ever found in the world.  Currently on display at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural Sciences, this turtle skeleton is called Archelon Ischyros.

 The fossils of this turtle, which is believed to have lived between 80 and 66 million years ago, were found in an area between present-day South Dakota and Wyoming, and the fossils were preserved under a shallow sea during the late Cretaceous period.

 Estimated to have lived about 100 years, this turtle is 15 feet (460 cm) long from head to tail and 13 feet (400 cm) wide.  And it is believed that the weight of this animal, which had a significant weight, was about 4900 pounds (2,200 kg).

 The interesting thing about this fossil is that one of the legs of this animal was missing when the fossil was found.  Scientists speculate that this leg may have been lost during the animal's early life.  Also, scientists speculate that this injury was caused by something that happened during the hatching season of the turtle, or by a bird attack that happened while traveling to the sea, or by an attack from a large predator such as a mosasaur or schifactinus.