Araripemys

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Araripemys is an extinct turtle genus, of which a fossil has been found in Brazil, supposed to be 120 million years old. According to the dating of this fossil, it therefore lived in the Early Cretaceous Period, the third period of the Mesozoic era. Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines (the crown group of the superorder Chelonia), characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield.The order Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. The earliest known turtles date from 215 million years agomaking turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards, snakes and crocodiles. Of the many species alive today, some are highly endangered.