History

Sea turtles are one of the longest living groups of animals to have ever existed, having far outlived the dinosaurs. They have roamed the earth for approximately 200 million years, adapting perfectly to their environment, until human activities put them under increased pressure. Sea turtles are a flagship species, which means they are a species chosen to represent an environmental cause conserving the marine ecosystem and wildlife. Chosen for their charismatic nature, distinctiveness and vulnerable status, sea turtles engender public support and thus assist leverage of the entire ecosystem and associated species.

Sea Turtles first appear in the fossil record of the Triassic period, from about 215 million years ago. The fossil record constitutes the older fossil history than any other living kind of four-legged animal.

“Archelon ischyros” was the largest turtle in the shallow sea, and this carnivore specimen is the largest sea turtle ever found, making it 30% larger than most other specimens of its species. The fossil bone skeleton of this sea turtle is owned by and on display at the National Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria. The skeleton measures about 15' (4.5m) long from beak to end of tail And about 16.5' (5.25m) wide across the carapace, from flipper to flipper. Archelon (pronounced ‘ARK eh lon’) means Giant Sea Turtle.

On the 19th of November 2008, scientists from the Natural History Museum presented evidence of the earliest aquatic turtles recently found in Scotland.  The fossils are from the Middle Jurassic period (about 164 million years old) and could be a missing link between land-based and aquatic turtles. They were uncovered from rocks on the Isle of Skye off the northwestern coast of Scotland by a team including researchers at University College London (UCL) (Earliest aquatic turtles found in Scotland, Natural History Museum, 19/11/2008).

The oldest turtle fossils date from about 210 million years ago in the Late Triassic period and came from land-living rather than aquatic animals (Earliest aquatic turtles found in Scotland, Natural History Museum, 19/11/2008).