This reconstructed skeleton of Pappochelys features its ribs (in black) and openings in its skull, confirming that turtles did not evolve from early stem-reptiles, as traditionally thought, but are most closely related to lizards among present-day reptiles. In June 2015, an international team of researchers from the United States and Germany discovered this new extinct species of reptile and identified a key missing link in the evolutionary history of turtles.
(Image credir: Rainer Schoch, Stuttgart Natural History Museum and Hans Sues, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History)