Hutchemys walkerorum was described as a new species after researchers studied a fossil specimen found in southwest North Dakota in 1975.
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It lived at the end of the Cretaceous Age, just before the mass extinction that destroyed the dinosaurs.
Experts say it is one of the earliest species of the genus and belongs to a particular group of soft-shell turtles in the Trionychidae family called plastomenines, which are similar to those of today.
However, the plastron of plastomenine turtles, the bone that covers their abdomen, is stronger and larger than other soft-shell turtles.
Plastomenin lived during the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, about 80 million to 50 million years ago.
Members of this group first appear in the fossil record during the Late Cretaceous, and one species continued into the Eocene Period, 50 million years ago, but they were at their peak diversity before and after the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
“Until now we didn’t understand these softshell turtles very well,” said lead author Steven Jasinski, of Penn State University.
“However, we are starting to gain more information about this extinct group of turtles and better understand their evolution, including how they handled the mass extinction.”
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