A research team led by NYIT scientist Gaberiel Bever has determined that a 260-million year-old fossil species found in South Africa's Karoo Basin provides a long awaited glimpse into the murky origins of turtles. Bever, describes the extinct reptile, named Eunotosaurus africanus, as the earliest known branch of the turtle tree of life. 

"Eunotosaurus is a critical link connecting modern turtles to their evolutionary past," said Bever, an assistant professor of anatomy at the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. "This is the fossil for which science has been searching for more than 150 years. You can think of it as a turtle, before turtles had a shell." 

While Eunotosaurus lacks the iconic turtle shell, its extremely wide ribs and distinctively circular torso are the first indications that this fossil represents an important clue in a long unsolved mystery: the origin of turtles. In a new study published in Nature, Bever and his colleagues from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Yale University, and the University of Chicago focus their attention on the skull of Eunotosaurus. Their findings indicated that the complex anatomy of the head houses convincing evidence of the important role played by Eunotosaurus in the deep history of turtle evolution.

"Our previous studies showed that Eunotosaurus possessed structures that likely represent the first steps in the evolution of the turtle shell" added Tyler Lyson of the Denver Museum of Science and Nature and a coauthor of the study, "but what those studies lacked was a detailed analysis of the skull."

Using high-resolution computed tomography, Bever digitally dissected the bones and internal structures of multiple Eunotosaurus skulls, all of which are housed in South African museums. He then incorporated his observations into a new analysis of the reptile tree of life. The process took the better part of four years, but according to Bever, the results were well worth the effort.

"Imaging technology gave us the opportunity to take the first look inside the skull of Eunotosaurus," said Bever, "and what we found not only illuminates the close relationship of Eunotosaurus to turtles, but also how turtles are related to other modern reptiles."