Fossil Hunters Assemble Sea Turtle Bones 160 Years After The First Part Was Discovered [Video]

In a recent ‘fossil miracle’ two halves of the same turtle’s arm bones were discovered almost 200 years apart, according to recent study.
(Photo : Nicole Mazouchova / Georgia Tech)

In a recent 'fossil miracle' two halves of the same turtle's arm bones were discovered almost 200 years apart, according to recent study.

"When two pieces of a fossil fit together, they fit perfectly like a puzzle piece," said Jason Schein, an assistant curator of natural history at the New Jersey State Museum, who was in the room when the two bone halves were first reunited, according to LA Times. "We were just kind of dumbfounded."

According to scientists, the turtle bones are 70 million to 75 million years old and were found in a shallow sea that covered the present central New Jersey.

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The other part of the bone discovered in 1849 had wound up in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Exactly after 162 years later analytical chemist and a weekend fossil hunter found the remaining half. They have been looking for an ancient shark teeth.

"We all laughed because the thought they would be a match, or fit together, was so absurd and ridiculous it was comical," said Schein, who works under David Parris, the museum's curator of natural history according to LA Times.

"As soon as I saw them fit together -- it was just like, what I'm seeing in front of me can't be happening. It's too crazy."

After the whole bone was fitted together, scientists determined that the bones belonged to the turtle which was massive - 10 feet long from tip to tail. After the death, its bones fell into soft sediment of the sea floor where it remained preserved for tens of millions of years.

"My guess, and we can only guess, is that part of the sediment got washed out, so one half of the bone stayed buried and the other half tumbled into the stream where it was found," said Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences, according to LA Times. "More than a century later the bank eventually eroded away and the other half was found."

"This bone is a very durable, solid thing and whatever freeze and thaw or flood event, nothing beat it up so badly that it couldn't be put together," he added.