Turtle Shell Evolution - Odontochelys

26 November 2008

 Odontochelys semitestacea is a fossil that was discovered in Southwest China and is estimated to be 220 million years old. This specimen appears to be a turtle that is missing the top part of his shell (ossified plates). Chun Li of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing said "Here, in our hands, there is an ideal missing link for turtle evolution. It has no osteoderms on its back, but only ossified neural [central] plates and expanded ribs."

If you were to take a modern turtle, odontochelys semitestacea, and some creature without any shell and line them up they would certainly look like the one creature turned into the other; however, lining up bones that you found on opposite sides of the planet does not prove they were once related... it just proves they died. If you took the chair I'm sitting in and compared it to the chair you are sitting in they probably look very similar. That does not prove they evolved from a common step stool, but it may suggest they were designed for a similar purpose.

This study also seems to promote Haeckel's recapitulation theory (ontogeny recapitulates philology) by stating there is embryonic evidence that suggests the shell forms in a similar manner. Recapitulation (an embryo goes through the evolutionary stages in the womb) has been known to be false for over 100 years but it is still taught in many circles.

Also, it has teeth. That would mean it had to evolve teeth, and then loose them. That is the opposite of evolution.

Finding bones in the dirt does not prove they had any children and it certainly can't prove the children were different then themselves. Why would animals in the past be able to do something we do not observe today.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com​/news/2008/11​/081126-oldest-turtle.html