It is one of the largest known freshwater turtles: an international research team has described a previously unknown extinct species from the late Pleistocene. Peltocephalus maturin is between 9,000 and 40,000 years old and comes from the Brazilian Amazon, reports Gabriel Ferreira’s group from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen in the journal “Biology Letters”.
With a shell length of around 180 centimeters, the species is one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world. It was named after the giant tortoise Maturin, a fictional character by best-selling author Stephen King. According to the group, part of the turtle’s lower jaw was discovered by gold miners in a quarry in Porto Velho, Brazil.
Today, the Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle (Chitra chitra) with a maximum shell length of 140 centimeters and the South American river turtle (Podocnemis expansa) with around 110 centimeters are among the largest freshwater turtles, it continues.
“From the past, we only know of a few turtles living in fresh waters that have a shell length of more than 150 centimeters,” Ferreira is quoted as saying in a Senckenberg communication. “Such large animals are most recently known mainly from the Miocene, the period around 23 to 5 million years ago.”
What is known about the animal
Based on various characteristics, the research team assumes that the now discovered species is closely related to the fat-headed Amazon turtle (Peltocephalus dumerilianus) and has a meat and vegetable diet.
“We named the new species after the giant tortoise Maturin, an overarching protagonist in the Stephen King multiverse,” says Ferreira. “Maturin is responsible for the creation of the universe in King’s novels and films.”
Researchers don’t know what led to the species’ extinction. “People settled the Amazon region around 12,600 years ago, says Ferreira. “We also know that large tortoises have been on the menu of hominins since the Paleolithic. It is still unclear whether freshwater turtles, which are much more difficult to catch due to their mobility, were also used by early humans for consumption and whether Peltocephalus maturin – together with the South American megafauna – fell victim to human expansion.
