Coming out of its shell: Team examining turtle fossil found in southwest Sask.

Paleontologists are poring over the fossil of a rare turtle species found in southwest Saskatchewan.

In a new paper, the paleontologists — including Ryan McKellar of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) — describe a new genus and species of smooth-shelled turtle that was found near Grasslands National Park in 2016.

(Government of Saskatchewan/Submitted)

The fossilized turtle is only the second of its kind studied in North America.

The new species is named Leiochelys tokaryki, or “Tokaryk’s smooth turtle.” The name recognizes Tim Tokaryk, a former curator of paleontology at the RSM who did extensive work on Cretaceous fossils of Saskatchewan.

“The whole shell is tiny, about the size of a fist, and it is a rare example where all of the bones are still articulated inside the shell,” McKellar said in a media release.

(Government of Saskatchewan/Submitted)

“The turtle is about 66 million years old and was found near Grasslands National Park in 2016, next to bones of a Triceratops.”

CT scanning was done at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron to produce images of the specimen which helped in the research.

The article about the fossil can be found here.