The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1900-07-26
This TURTLE LIVED
TEN MILLION TEARS LEO.
Has Greatest and Most
Important Animal
History.
WEIGHED EIGHT THOUSAND POUNDS.
FOUND ON CHEYENNE RIVER,
IN BLACK HILLS
REGION.
These Primitive Turtles Were Twel-
We to Fourteen Feet Long and
Were the Dread of the
Early Monsters.

NEW HAVE NOlll-s July u
There was put on exhibition In N
Peabody Museum at Yale this wee
the most remarkable fossil skeletol
that has ever been restored.
II is the skull OF giant turtle tina
lived 10000. 900 years ago. He Ia.
the same characteristics that the skull
of turtle Of to-day possesses, and it
restoration conclusively proves tina
the turtle is the only object of the liv
ing world which is directly connected
with the far distant ages OF geological
times.
In a word the turtle, which is now,
adays regarded as one of the loves
and most uninteresting forms of this
living world. has the greatest and
most important history of ali living
things.
The skeleton. which has just been re-
stored for the Yale Museum, was found
five years ago by Dr. G. f. Wieland. a
graduate of the Pennsylvania State
College. who is now connected with
Peobdy Museum at Yale.
Dr. Wieland found the skeleton while
digging for fossils on the banks Of the
Cheyenne river in the Black Hills
country The skeleton was embedded
in a cretaceous formation, which in
dictated that this country was once COW
cred by salt water ocean, in which
this great turtle and many other pre-
historic creatures lived.
The skull which Dr. Wieland has
restored is twenty-nine inches in
length and sixteen inches in depth.
The skull of the largest turtle known
to be living to-day is barely one foot
in length. The skull of DR. Wieland's
turtle must have belonged to turtle
that weighed at least 5000 pounds.
To-day the largest marine turtles
weight less than 1900 pounds, and the
largest skeletons in the museums be-
ionged 10 turtles that weighed less than
a thousand pounds.
DR.. Wieland has made long and
careful study of the turtle as he is and
as he was. He has discovered many in
and remarkable things about
this obscure creature. In the first place,
DR.. Wieland has discovered that the
big turtles of geological times are di
rectly connected with the turtles Of
to-day, and that of all living animals
known to science the turtle is the only
one whose anatomy is exactly the
same as it was 10000, 600 years ago.
Many forms of the life of those days
have entirely disappeared. Those that
have not disappeared have been so
that they are hardly recogniz-
able to-day even to the scientists. The
oaIy respect in which the turtle has
is that his race has decreased
and his size and character have deteri-
grated.
In geological times, when the devel
opment of the turtle seems to have
reached its zenith, turtles were from
Twelve to fourteen feet in length. They
had fiippers from four to six feet long.
They weighed from four to six tons.
They were swift swimmers and ire
nendousiy powerful. They had beak
shaped like an eagle, which showed
hat they were fierce. They preyed up
N practically all of the living creatures
If geological times.
The mosasauria of those days, with
heir graceful forms. their broad flip
,ers and their weird, rudder-like tails,
we're no match for the turtle in speed
,r in strength. The hesperornis, the
arnivorous ostrich, which lived in the
,cean, also fell prey TO the turtle of
hose days. The archaeopteryx, the
Missing link between bird and reptile.
he most mysterious and curious form
4 life OF those days, feared the turtle
s he feared death. The pyeranondon.
hose head was three feet long. one of |
he great birds of geological times, also |
furnished toothsome mouthfuls for |
he turtle.
Since DR.. Wieland found his big tur-
lie skull he has been studying all |
.inds of turtles. The result of his in
estigation of the turtle which to |
completely upset all of the popular !
nd many Of the scientific ideas Of this |
tumble creature, which in the nine
eenth century has been the prey OF |
degenerate appetites and OF commerce.
People have long known that the |
urtle is long lived and that he can live
without food for long time. They
ave also believed that the turtle had |
% feeling and never suffered pain.
DR.. Wieiand has discovered that the /
urtle does suffer. That its very life
epends upon its home and its sur
and its food. He has penned /
ID turtles. taken them away from their |
mates and watched them suffer and |
efuse food for months and months and |
nally die OF a broken heart. The high |
r grade turtles have refused 10 live IN |
aptiyity and away from their mates.
". wfeiand has found that the turtle /.
SIS a great deal Of Intelligence. and /
hat while il can live for long periods |
rithout food. that this does not prove |
hat 1t does not need food
DR.. wieland's turtle belongs to what /
5 known TO scientists as the ..triassic |
eriodT II was in this period that the /
urtIe seems TO have reached the zenith /
( It's development In the jursssic Pc
;od the turtle multiplied very rapidly. |
ut from that time down the race OF !
has been declining
To-day there are two great divisions
1 furtles-the puny land turtles and
be fresh water turtles, Of which there
re several hundred species that live "a !
he tropics and suh-tropical countries
nd the marine turtles thar i've in the
en- or this latter family there are