Solnhofia parsonsi, DMA-JP-2004/005, from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Torleite Formation of Painten. Credit: PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287936
A perfectly preserved turtle fossil from Lower Bavaria yields important clues about both the species and the habitat that existed in southern Germany 150 million years ago
The fossil is the best-preserved specimen of Solnhofia parsonsi found to date. Its forelimbs and hind limbs are comparatively short, suggesting that the turtle lived near the coast. This in contrast with today’s sea turtles, which have elongated flippers and live in the open sea.
The layers of the Solnhofen limestone, which are rich in fossils, run along the entire valley of the Altmühl. The fossil of Solnhofia parsonsi was found in a quarry in the Painten district west of Regensburg, where systematic digging for fossils has only been going on for about 20 years.
“The very good preservation of the fossils in the layers of limestone can be explained by the environmental conditions at the time,” says Andreas Matzke of the University of Tübingen and a co-author of the study.
About 150 million years ago, a shallow, tropical sea stretched across southern Germany; it contained many islands and reefs that separated basins from the open sea. Floating particles sank to the basin floors, forming layers of limestone.
If an animal died, its remains also sank to the bottom. Due to the low exchange of the lagoon water with the open sea, the oxygen content there was so low and the salt content so high that dead plants and animals did not decompose. Plant and animal remains were preserved and fossilized in the limestone—often in unique detail.