Fine Fossil Turtle from the Badlands of Nebraska

Description: Presented is a fully mature adult specimen of this classic turtle species from the Oligocene of Nebraska. It is fully 3D and inflated. Note the unusual camouflage, drab green color. There are no scratches, dinks or dents on the specimen. It is heavy, solid, clean and very presentable.

Stylemys is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise belonging to the order Testudines discovered in the United States. The genus lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia, based of fossil distribution. The genus was first described in 1851 by Dr. Joseph Leidy. The tortoise was common in the prehistoric Badlands, especially Nebraska and South Dakota.

The badlands of the western US are particularly rich in mammal fossils from the late Eocene to Miocene. The Brule Formation is exposed over a huge area including Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, and yields abundant fossils as layers are eroded. This diverse group of stocky prehistoric mammals grazed amid the grasslands, prairies or savannas of North and Central America throughout much of the Cenozoic era.