Microraptor's World
Turtle
Ordosemys
While this particular animal lived at the time of
Microraptor, turtles evolved at least 230 million years ago,
long before the Liaoning fossil time. Even the earliest turtles,
with their characteristic shells, resembled modern ones. The fossils
of Liaoning are of two kinds: soft-shell turtles related to species
living today, and—brace yourself—nanhsiungchelyids,
which Mark Norell notes "have lumpy shells, huge noses (the largest
in turtledom), long tails, and a very hard-to-pronounce name coined
after the locality where these animals were first found."