Turtle eggs from the Kaiparowits Formation of Southern Utah

Ashley Ferguson obtained her PhD in paleontology through the Department of Geosciences at Idaho State University in 2021. Her research focused on the functional morphology, evolution, taphonomy, and distribution of fossil and modern amniote eggs and nests. Locating eggs and nests in the fossil record is difficult to do, but as part of her dissertation Dr. Ferguson discovered an in-situ clutch of 74 million year old turtle eggs in the Kaiparowits Formation in southern Utah. The unique attributes of the eggshell warrant naming of a new oospecies, Testudoolithus tuberi! Dr. Ferguson worked as a Collections assistant and research associate at IMNH and is currently a Museum Project Manager at the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History at the College of Southern Idaho. 

Rare clutch of Cretaceous turtle eggs preserved in the Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah