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Newly discovered giant turtle fossil named after Stephen King character

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Researchers who found a giant freshwater turtle fossil discovered in Brazil’s have named it Peltocephalus maturin after a character in one of Stephen King’s novels. 

The fossil was “among the largest freshwater turtles ever found,” researchers said in the release of their findings on Wednesday in the British journal Biology Letters. 

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First author Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira (right) taking samples for the geochemical analyses

Senckenberg


“Only a handful of them have crossed the 150 cm threshold in the past,” researchers said.  

Bone samples found by gold miners in the Taquaras quarry in Porto Velho, Brazil, were sent to the Center for Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia to be analyzed, the researchers said. The findings were astounding: the shell of the fossil measured about 180 cm in length, an incredibly rare occurrence, and far larger than the 140 and 110 cm recorded for today’s freshwater turtles.

“Today we have no idea how a freshwater turtle with a carapace of almost 2 meters looks like,” Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira, lead study author and scientist at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution Palaeoenvironment at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany. 

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Visualization of the newly discovered giant turtle Peltocephalus maturin.

Júlia d’Oliveira


“What would our ancestors have thought if they really saw such a giant alive? Would they be afraid of it? Would they hunt it for food or worship it? Or both?” Ferreira wrote in an email to CBS News.

The turtle’s size inspired the etymology, Ferreira said. As researchers were casting around for a name, one of them, Miriam Pacheco, a big fan of King’s novels, suggested Maturin. The giant sea turtle is a recurring character in the author’s novels, a wise grandfather-like figure that serves as a guardian and protector. 

“See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth. His thought is slow but always kind; He holds us all within his mind,” King wrote.

Other findings showed a suspected omnivorous diet. Others point to the possibility that the giant turtle “inhabited the Amazon rainforest on the fringe of human occupation of the Americas.”

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The holotype of the newly discovered giant tortoise: a massive partial lower jaw.

Senckenberg


Scientists cautioned that “more data from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits of the Amazon basin are needed to evaluate this hypothesis.”

“We hope this finding triggers further support to continue exploring and collecting more fossils in the region,” said Ferreira. “But also finding other fossils in the area might help us to better constraint their age and to understand the local fauna back then.”



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Former Bolivian President Evo Morales claims his car was fired upon in attempted assassination

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Former President Evo Morales of Bolivia claimed he survived an assassination attempt on Sunday after unidentified men opened fire on his car. He was not injured and there was no immediate confirmation of the attack from authorities.

Morales alleged the shots were fired while he was being driven in Bolivia’s coca leaf-growing region of Chapare, the ex-president’s rural stronghold whose residents have blockaded the country’s main east-west highway for the past two weeks.

The roadblocks — protesting what Morales’ supporters decry as President Luis Arce’s attempts to sabotage his former mentor and bitter political rival — have isolated cities and disrupted food and fuel supplies.

Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, emerged unscathed from the alleged attack Sunday, appearing on his weekly radio show in his usual calm manner to recount what happened.

He told the radio host that as he was leaving home for the radio station, hooded men fired at least 14 shots at his car, wounding his driver.

Morales was quick to blame his successor, President Arce, with whom he is fighting to be the candidate of governing socialist party in next year’s presidential election. He claimed that Arce’s government resorted to physical force having been unable to defeat him politically.

Bolivia Morales
Former President Evo Morales speaks to supporters after marching to La Paz, Bolivia, to protest current President Luis Arce, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024.

Juan Karita / AP


“Arce is going to go down as the worst president in history,” Morales said. “Shooting a former president is the last straw.”

Officials in Arce’s government did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.

Cellphone video circulating online shows Morales’ driver bleeding from the back of his head. Morales can be seen in the passenger’s seat holding a phone to his ear as the vehicle swerves and a woman’s voice shrieks “Duck!”

The footage shows the car’s front windshield cracked by at least three bullets and its rear windshield shattered. Morales can be heard saying, “Papacho has been shot in the head,” apparently referring to his driver.

“They are shooting at us,” Morales continues on the phone. “They shot the tire of the car and it stopped on the road.”

Morales’ claim deepens political tensions in Bolivia at a volatile moment for the cash-strapped Andean nation of 12 million.

In June, there was an apparent attempted coup by a rogue military general leading a rebellion, where armored vehicles and troops marched to the presidential palace and tried to force their way into the building. The rebellion retreated after Arce confronted the general, bringing the alleged coup attempt to a head, and ordered him to stand down. The general and other senior officers were later arrested.


Apparent military coup fails in Bolivia

04:28

Then, last month, Morales led a massive march against the government’s mismanagement of the economy that quickly devolved into street clashes with pro-government mobs. Imported goods are scarce and prices are rising. Drivers wait for hours to fill up at gas stations. The gap between the official and black-market exchange rates is widening.

Earlier this month, the feud between Morales and Arce moved to the courts as Bolivian prosecutors launched an investigation into accusations that Morales fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, classifying their relationship as statutory rape.

Morales has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and refused to testify in the case. Since reports surfaced of a possible arrest warrant against him, the ex-president has been holed up in the Chapare region, in central Bolivia, where supportive coca growers have kept vigilant watch to protect him from arrest.

President Arce accuses Morales of trying to undermine his administration to advance his own ambitions.



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Open: This is “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 27, 2024

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Open: This is “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 27, 2024 – CBS News


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This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance discusses Russian disinformation campaigns and the Trump-Vance ticket’s “women problem.” Plus, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney joins.

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Full interview: GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance

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Full interview: GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance – CBS News


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Watch Margaret Brennan’s full interview with Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a portion of which aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Oct. 27, 2024.

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