Scientists stumbled upon a colossal fossil of a freshwater turtle in the depths of Brazil, dubbing it Peltocephalus maturin in honor of a character from one of Stephen King's literary works.
The groundbreaking discovery was revealed in a recent publication in the British journal Biology Letters. According to the researchers, the fossil represents one of the largest freshwater turtles ever identified.
"Only a select few have surpassed the 150 cm mark in the history books," the team of experts shared.
Initial bone fragments were stumbled upon by miners in the Taquaras quarry located in Porto Velho, Brazil. Subsequently, these samples were dispatched to the Center for Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia for thorough examination.
The results were nothing short of extraordinary: the turtle's shell measured a whopping 180 cm in length, a rare feat that far exceeds the dimensions of today's freshwater turtles, which typically range between 110 and 140 cm.
"The modern world has yet to witness the sheer magnificence of a freshwater turtle bearing a shell nearly 2 meters in size," remarked Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira, the primary investigator and a distinguished scientist at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution Palaeoenvironment affiliated with the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany.
"What would our ancestors have thought if they really saw such a giant alive? Would they be afraid of it? Would they hunt it for food or worship it? Or both?" Ferreira wrote in an email to CBS News.
The turtle's size inspired the etymology, Ferreira said. As researchers were casting around for a name, one of them, Miriam Pacheco, a big fan of King's novels, suggested Maturin. The giant sea turtle is a recurring character in the author's novels, a wise grandfather-like figure that serves as a guardian and protector.
"See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth. His thought is slow but always kind; He holds us all within his mind," King wrote.
Other findings showed a suspected omnivorous diet. Others point to the possibility that the giant turtle "inhabited the Amazon rainforest on the fringe of human occupation of the Americas."
Scientists cautioned that "more data from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits of the Amazon basin are needed to evaluate this hypothesis."
"We hope this finding triggers further support to continue exploring and collecting more fossils in the region," said Ferreira. "But also finding other fossils in the area might help us to better constraint their age and to understand the local fauna back then."
