<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/36c94481-4280-40a3-aa30-6f6a2a876590/D6699057-B1A9-4AC3-A0D2-867455755B2B/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell" href="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell" style="font-size: 11px;">www.cosmosmagazine.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.cosmosmagazine.com/img/7499B143-65A2-4C64-B15B-97E6BF1983A6" alt="Odontochelys semitestacea" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell"><P>PARIS: A stunningly intact 220-million-year-old turtle fossil with a shell on its front, but not its back, appears to have settled a long-simmering debate over reptile evolution: how did the turtle get its shell?</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell">In a study published today in the British journal <I>Nature</I>, scientists report the discovery of a missing-link species – <I>Odontochelys semitestacea</I> ('toothed, half-shell turtle') – whose outer shell emerged directly from the ribs and backbone and not from the skin, as some have argued.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell">The find also suggests that turtles originated in water rather than on land, and pushes back the group's first known appearance on Earth by some 10 million years.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell">in the absence of hard evidence, scientists have argued since the early 1800s over exactly how this reptilian mobile home came into being.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell">One school of thought said the shell evolved from skin</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell">The competing theory said that the plastron formed first</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2375/how-turtle-got-its-shell">followed by an outgrowth and widening of the ribs and backbone to form the hard-shell carapace</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D6699057-B1A9-4AC3-A0D2-867455755B2B/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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