A 260 million-year-old fossil has been determined to be the oldest ancestor of turtles found to date, revealing something about the reptile's mysterious past. Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, ...

An artist's reconstruction shows the stem-turtle Pappochelys in this image released to Reuters on June 23, 2015. REUTERS/Rainer Schoch/Stuttgart Natural History Museum/Handout By Will Dunham ...

Of the modern turtle’s many distinct features, nothing stands out more than its iconic shell. But paleontologists have discovered a 228 million-year-old fossilized turtle that is not only missing its ...

Rudyard Kipling seems to have covered the bases with his “Just So” stories: how the camel got its hump, how the rhino got its skin, how the leopard got its spots. But it seems that he forgot one. How ...

Eleanor has an undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Reading and a master’s in wildlife documentary production from the University of Salford. Eleanor has an undergraduate degree in ...

A half-shell turtle species that swam in China's coastal waters 220 million years ago is the oldest turtle known to date, a new analysis of fossils reveals. The turtle had a belly shell, but its back ...

In the past decade, scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of two prehistoric turtles that had a partial shell, but that lacked the toothless beak of modern turtles. Recently, however, a ...

Turtles are pretty mellow creatures, but they excel at causing strife among paleontologists. Researchers have long been left guessing as to how soft-backed animals somehow transitioned into the ...