Although often overlooked, the integument of many tetrapods is reinforced by a
morphologically and structurally diverse assemblage of skeletal elements. These elements …

Over the last 25 years, researchers, mostly paleontologists, have developed a system of
rank-free, phylogenetically defined names for the primary clades of turtles. As these names …

Turtles of the clade Pan-Trionychidae have a rich, but fragmentary fossil record in the New
World, ranging from the Late Cretaceous to the Holocene. The clade immigrated to North …

Protective materials and structures found in natural organisms may inspire new armors with
improved resistance to penetration, flexibility, light weight, and other interesting properties …

Turtles have served as a model system for molecular divergence dating studies using fossil
calibrations. However, because some parts of the fossil record of turtles are very well known …

Bone is a tissue that performs many important physiological tasks, both mechanical
(anchoring muscles to allow movement, and providing mechanical protection), and …

The origin of the turtle shell has perplexed biologists for more than two centuries [1]. It was
not until Odontochelys semitestacea [2] was discovered, however, that the fossil and …

Ankylosauria is a diverse clade of armoured dinosaurs whose members were important
constituents of many Cretaceous faunas. Phylogenetic analyses imply that the clade …

Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been
documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a …

The turtle body plan, with its solid shell, deviates radically from those of other tetrapods. The
dorsal part of the turtle shell, or the carapace, consists mainly of costal and neural bony …