Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. Some of our favorite
Speaker 1: animals used to be bigger. The giant beaver of the
Speaker 1: Pleistocene was the size of a black bear, and the
Speaker 1: Titana boa was a snake longer than a school bus
Speaker 1: and as big around as a tractor tire. There were
Speaker 1: hippo sized wombats, humongous sea scorpions, and birds of prey
Speaker 1: the size of small jets. We still have some giants today,
Speaker 1: like the blue whale, but the largest organism currently living
Speaker 1: on earth is a fungus that stretches some two point
Speaker 1: four miles that's three point eight kilometers underground in Oregon.
Speaker 1: But new research published in February in the journal Scientific
Speaker 1: Advances beefs up our picture a stupendamous geographicus, a giant
Speaker 1: freshwater turtle the size of a sensible four door sedan,
Speaker 1: which lived in the coastal wetlands of South America between
Speaker 1: five and ten million years ago before the Amazon River
Speaker 1: was formed. The study found that the turtle was one
Speaker 1: hundred times heavier than its closest modern relative and had
Speaker 1: the largest carapace or shell of any turtle ever known.
Speaker 1: This whopping two thousand, five hundred pound goliath that's one thousand,
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty kilos was also ready for battle.
Speaker 1: Some carapaces were tricked out with front facing horns sitting
Speaker 1: on both sides of their head, something scientists haven't seen
Speaker 1: before in prehistoric turtles. Marcello Sanchez, director of the Paleontological
Speaker 1: Institute and Museum at the University of Zurich, said in
Speaker 1: a press release. The two shell types indicate that two
Speaker 1: sexes of Stupendibus existed, males with horns shells and females
Speaker 1: with hornless shells. Their shells were also covered in big
Speaker 1: scars and puncture marks, suggesting a few things about Stupendibus.
Speaker 1: These big brutes were fighters. The males and females did
Speaker 1: look different, and the males might have even fought each
Speaker 1: other for access to the females. The horns could also
Speaker 1: have come in handy in fighting off another unspeakably hefty
Speaker 1: freshwater animal, the purse sourus, which was a cayman, a
Speaker 1: group of reptiles related to alligators that weighed nine point
Speaker 1: three tons and required ninety pounds or forty kilos of food. Today,
Speaker 1: just to get by all those dependumous geographicus was first
Speaker 1: described in the mid nineteen seventies. The current study has
Speaker 1: revised what we know about the size, anatomy, distribution, and
Speaker 1: ecology of this turtle beast. Because the vast wetlands of
Speaker 1: prehistoric Venezuela and Colombia could support such a heavy duty
Speaker 1: team of reptiles, Stupendamous and Parasaurus probably duked it out
Speaker 1: until their ecosystem could no longer support either. Let this
Speaker 1: be a lesson to us all. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Jocelyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other really big topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.