A fossilized smooth shelled turtle was discovered in southwest Saskatchewan and it is only the second of its kind studied in North America.

A recently published paper describes the fossil as a new genus and species of smooth-shelled turtled.

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum’s Dr. Ryan McKellar says, “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.” 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 at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron helped image the specimen described as delicate with the ability to look at the entire skeleton which provided a new level of detail in their research.