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- ARCHELON is also a sea-turtle conservation society, see ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece
Archelon is a genus of extinct sea turtle, the largest that has ever lived. The largest Archelon fossil, found in the Pierre Shale of South Dakota in the 1970s, measures more than four and a half meters long, and about four meters from flipper to flipper. It was a sea going turtle, related to present day Leatherback Sea Turtles. Its fossils date to 70 million years ago in the Cretaceous period, when a shallow sea covered most of central North America. The live weight of an Archelon ischyros is estimated at more than 4,500 pounds (2200 kilograms).
External Links
References
Black hills institute of Geological Research, Inc. webpage on the Archelon
"Archelon"