140 THE WHITE RIVER BADLANDS 



Interest naturally attaches to the turtles, crocodiles 

 and birds eggs, the first because of their size and abundance, 

 and the second because of their having lived in this latitude 

 and the third because of the general rarity of fossil eggs. 

 These may be briefly described. 



TURTLES 



Few Badland fossils are more abundant or more widely 

 distributed or better preserved than the turtles. The size 

 of the individuals varies from a few inches in length to 

 more than two feet. Specimens three feet long are oc- 

 casionally observed. These large sized Tertiary forms 

 should not be confused with the far larger Cretaceous tur- 

 tles found in the black Pierre shales near the Big Badlands. 

 These Cretaceous turtles became veritable monsters and 

 reached a greater size than any others yet found anywhere 

 in the world, either living or fossil. The type specimen, 

 found near Railroad Buttes, southeast of the Black Hills 

 and described by Mr. Wieland in 1896, had a total length 

 of approximately eleven feet, and fragmentary portions of 

 a still larger individual showed a length of forty inches for 

 the head alone. 



From the various Badland formations in the White 

 River region ten species of turtles have been described. Of 

 all these only Stylemys nebrascensis occurs in abundance. 

 (Plate 48). So far as I have learned each of the other 

 species is known by only one or two specimens. Published 

 reference to these latter is meagre and confined in the main 

 to brief scientific description. 



Stylemys nebrascensis, the common form, was first de- 

 scribed in 1851 by Dr. Joseph Leidy, and is the earliest dis- 

 covered fossil turtle in America. The first specimens were 

 obtained by Dr. John Evans of the Owen Geological Survey 

 in 1849 and since then hundreds of specimens have found 

 their way into the museums of the world. The visitor in 

 the Badlands can scarcely fail to find them if he walks 

 along the outcrops of the containing strata and in favorable 

 localities he may see them with surprising frequency. I 

 myself have observed many dozens of them in a few hours 

 walk in Indian draw and there are other places where they 

 seem to be as abundant. They are found particularly in the 

 Oreodon beds but occur in the Protoceras beds also. As yet 

 none have been found in the Titanotherium beds. 



