Peritresius ornatus (Leidy)
A rare sea-turtle from Monmouth County, NJ

A Preview
  

 
  Discovered in April of 2007, the recovery and reconstruction of this specimen was an extensive two year team effort. While everyone involved deserves credit and a vote of thanks, this webpage is simply a short preview describing a little about the find and some photographs. I will leave the back-patting and handshakes to when the turtle is turned over to the Trenton State Museum and the first papers published.
  To find this much of any turtle in the marls of NJ is a rarity, to find what may be the most complete specimen of a species is pure serendipity. Leidy's type specimen, first described in 1856, consisted of two incomplete and badly damaged peripheral bones, and to my knowledge just a handful of somewhat decent specimens have been found since. One last comment, this specimen of Peritresius ornatus was found in over 500 scattered fragments, each one cleaned and painstakingly glued back together.   

Peritresius ornatus
Monmouth County, NJ
Best estimate right now is about 2 1/2 feet long X 2 feet wide.

Cleaning some of the first fragments in my garage.
We really weren't sure what we had at this point.
 

Peripheral bone (outer edge)
As you can see from the picture, the state of preservation is excellent.
The highly ornate "sculpturing" of the carapace (upper shell)
is characteristic of P. ornatus.
 

Left - A section of plastron (bottom)
Right - Costal (located along the side)