Huge, 14" Fossil Tortoise (Stylemys) With Limb Bones

This is a huge and perfectly inflated, 14" long specimen of an Oligocene aged tortoise (Stylemys nebrascensis) collected from the White River Formation of South Dakota. Excellent preservation with no restoration work done to it. Two of the limb bones can be seen in place, protruding out of the underside of the shell.

The specimen is quite heavy, probably weighing close to 40 lbs.

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.