6.6" Fossil Tortoise (Stylemys) - Wyoming

This is an Oligocene aged, fossil tortoise of the genus Stylemys collected from a private ranch near Torrington, Wyoming. Most of the shell is present, just missing a section from the back end. There are a couple of repaired cracks but no restoration.

Stylemys ("pillar turtle") is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise discovered in the United States. The genus lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia
These extinct tortoises had primitive jaw muscles, unlike today's tortoises, which also display the os transiliens bone, and would have been herbivorous. While Stylemys species did exhibit the same neck structure as modern tortoises, the forelimbs were unsuitable for burrowing.