Tour Stop One
Turtle Tales
This crescent-shaped fossil belongs to a group of turtles called chelids. These freshwater turtles are still found in Australia’s lakes, creeks, and rivers—such as the nearby Gregory River. Some of the oldest (late Oligocene and Miocene) chelids have been discovered at Riversleigh.
Illustration © Jane Jehne
Tour Stop One
Turtle Tales
This crescent-shaped fossil belongs to a group of turtles called chelids. These freshwater turtles are still found in Australia’s lakes, creeks, and rivers—such as the nearby Gregory River. Some of the oldest (late Oligocene and Miocene) chelids have been discovered at Riversleigh.
Did you know?
Stranger kinds of turtles have been discovered in other deposits, including the huge, horned meiolaniids that weighed up to 200kg and lived on land.
Freshwater turtles are of major cultural significance to the Waanyi people.
Turtle is one of the main totems, features in creation stories, and is associated with sites of ritual importance. There are rock art paintings of turtle in Riversleigh Country. Various species of turtle are hunted in the running waters and swamps on Waanyi Country and they remain an important food source. Freshwater turtle eggs can also be eaten.
Discovery of a New Giant
Pleistocene chelid (Elseya lavarackorum) was discovered at the ‘Terrace Site’ (c.24,000 years) along the Gregory River. This species was first named by scientists in 1994 based on the fossils from Riversleigh. Although first described by scientists as a fossil, it was later found to be still living in the river systems that flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria, such as the Gregory and Nicholson Rivers and Lawn Hill Creek.
It is now known as the endangered Gulf Snapping Turtle – a real ‘living fossil’.
Wabunbarra (Gulf Snapping Turtle)
The Gulf Snapping Turtle is called Wabunbarra in the Waanyi language. This species has been identified during recent turtle surveys at Boodjamulla National Park involving the Ngumari Waanyi Rangers, and in the neighbouring Ganalanga Mindibirrina Indigenous Protected Area (Northern Territory) by the Waanyi-Garawa Rangers. Both Indigenous ranger groups are actively working to conserve this endangered species.
Many new kinds of turtles, including meiolaniids (Horned Turtles) and some of the oldest (late Oligocene and Miocene) chelids have been discovered at Riversleigh.
While most of these are extinct, two kinds of fossil turtles share links with modern species. Australia’s only fossil Pseudemydura was discovered at Riversleigh and dated to 15 million years ago. This fossil may be the same species as the critically endangered Western Swamp Tortoise (Pseudemydura umbrina) which is now found only near Perth in Western Australia.
