A paleontologist has discovered the oldest turtle fossil in Colombia: it is 13 million years old

In the world, contrary to what many think, there are still things to discover. Hidden by the layers of years, centuries and millions of years ago 13 million years An aquatic turtle native to South America inhabited our national territory, discovered in 2023 by the Colombian paleontologist Edwin Cadena, professor at the Universidad del Rosario, together with Rubén Darío Vanegas, from Natural History Museum of La Tatacoa.

The two researchers realized that it was neither more nor less than the oldest recording of its kind, Podocnemisso far known in the country, a finding recently published in the international scientific journal Geodiversity.

“According to our investigation of the fossil, this species of turtle inhabited the national territory 13 million years ago, during a geological time called the Middle Miocene“, said Edwin Cadena, explaining that the new species was named, Podocnemis tatacoensis, in honor of the region where it was found, the desert of the tacoain the department of Wheels.

And since to preserve the future, we must understand the past, Professor Cadena drew attention to the fact that this is a discovery that will allow us to bring a small grain of sand to the projects of conservation there preservation of the current turtles, because, according to him, it is difficult to raise awareness of conservation among communities and residents close to the environments where these turtles live, if their history is not well known.

“Knowing that these turtles have inhabited our country for millions of years and that in just a few decades, we could end this whole long evolutionary journey that they’ve had, this is undoubtedly a reason to rethink before hunting them or destroying their ecosystems,” he said.

For the Colombian paleontologist, “what is interesting in this fossil is the presence of a few foramina or small holes at the junction between the dorsal part of the shell and the plastron or cuirass, which allow it to be identified as belonging to the genus Podocnemis”, which corresponds to a genus of aquatic turtles typical of the north of the subcontinent and of which there are today at least six species. But beware ! that there were notable differences from the current species.

The fossil found, in comparison with the turtles of the same genus that currently live in the country, presents some differences in the shape and number of bones, called neural, and in the keratinized scales that cover them. That is why we can define that it was a different species from those that currently exist, ”commented the professor of the Earth System Sciences program of the Universidad del Rosario.

“So far, the evolutionary history of the Podocnemis tortoises that inhabit the Magdalena River and the rivers of Amazon and Orinoco from Colombia is controversial, as molecular data indicates that they have inhabited this region of northern South America for several million years,” the paleontologist said.

“However, validating this hypothesis with fossils is difficult due to the lack of complete specimens. This is where Podocnemis tatacoensis stands out due to its excellent preservation which allows us to validate that at least this group of turtles has lived in our country for 13 million years,” the researcher pointed out.

Finally, according to Edwin Cadena, this discovery allows reconstruct the past of the species who have inhabited our country, in addition to consolidating knowledge on the paleobiodiversity of a place like Colombiawhich stands out worldwide for the large number of existing species it has in different groups like birds and reptiles.

“For the paleontology of Colombia and the department of Huila, this shows the great wealth in terms of paleontological heritage that the country and this region have. Also, unlike other countries where the discovery of a new fossil species is not so common, here in Colombia it is something that is growing, partly because we did not have a large group of national paleontologists with high activity in research, or because there are still many areas of our country to explore in terms of fossils,” he said.

This discovered fossil is on display at the La Tatacoa Natural History Museum, located in the populated center of La Victoria, in the northern part of the La Tatacoa Desert.