Translate this scientific paragraph for my HS class

Factual Questions
1

I teach an Environmental Science class, for which I am barely qualified, if at all. I have a very high ratio of evangelical Christian students (don’t get out the pitchforks, I’m one too) who have been told all kinds of horrible arguments against evolution. I took them mostly through Scientific American’s 15 Responses to Creationist Nonsense, and most of them saw what it was saying.

This seems like a very interesting summary about the evolution of turtles, but I’m not good enough at biology or anatomy to really understand their points. Could someone rewrite this a bit to make it accessible to high schoolers? I’d really appreciate it.

The origin of the turtle body plan remains one of the great mysteries of reptile evolution. The anatomy of turtles is highly derived, which renders it difficult to establish the relationships of turtles with other groups of reptiles. The oldest known turtle, Proganochelys from the Late Triassic period of Germany1, has a fully formed shell and offers no clue as to its origin. Here we describe a new 220-million-year-old turtle from China, somewhat older than Proganochelys, that documents an intermediate step in the evolution of the shell and associated structures. A ventral plastron is fully developed, but the dorsal carapace consists of neural plates only. The dorsal ribs are expanded, and osteoderms are absent. The new species shows that the plastron evolved before the carapace and that the first step of carapace formation is the ossification of the neural plates coupled with a broadening of the ribs. This corresponds to early embryonic stages of carapace formation in extant turtles, and shows that the turtle shell is not derived from a fusion of osteoderms. Phylogenetic analysis places the new species basal to all known turtles, fossil and extant. The marine deposits that yielded the fossils indicate that this primitive turtle inhabited marginal areas of the sea or river deltas.

2

I can’t really translate it for you (my Latin is verrrry rusty), but here’s a link to story done on this subject by NPR. It’s a 3 minute audio clip and should be more comprehensible.

3

Ventral= frontside
Dorsal= backside
Plastron= flat, stomach-side shell of a turtle
Carapice= back, round shell
Neural plates= dunno. In humans, a neural plate is an embryonic level thing that becomes nerves. I’m guessing it’s the spinal cord of a turtle?
osteoderm= lit. “bone skin”, scale-formers. Like your cuticles but for scales.
ossification= becoming bone
Phylogenetc…basal= evolutionary ancestor of the turtles, both the fossil specimens and currently existing ones.

How’s that?

ETA: basically, it’s saying that this newly found turtle is the ancestor to modern turtles. The stomach shell evolved before anything else. Then the spinal cord got a spinal column (ossification of the plates), then the carapice formed.

4

The origin of the turtle body plan remains one of the great mysteries of reptile evolution. The anatomy of turtles is

highly derived -**very different/evolved from - makes it hard to trace back to original source **

which renders it difficult to establish the relationships of turtles with other groups of reptiles. The oldest known turtle, Proganochelys from the Late Triassic period of Germany1, has a fully formed shell and offers no clue as to its origin. Here we describe a new 220-million-year-old turtle from China, somewhat older than Proganochelys, that documents an intermediate step in the evolution of the shell and associated structures.

A ventral plastron - **Ventral is as opposed to dorsal. From the Latin “venter” meaning belly. - ie belly shell / plates **
is fully developed, but the dorsal carapace - **top shell **

consists of neural plates only. - **Situated in the region of the spinal axis, as the neutral arch - ie along the spine. **
The dorsal ribs - Relating to the back or postterior of a structure. As opposed to the ventral, or front, of the structure - ie back ribs

are expanded, and osteoderms are absent. -Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates or other structures in the dermal layers of the skin.

The new species shows that the plastron -The plastron is the nearly flat part of the shell structure of a turtle or tortoise, what one would call the belly, similar in composition to the carapace; with an external layer of horny material divided into plates called scutes and an underlying layer of interlocking bones.

evolved before the carapace - **The carapace is the dorsal, convex part of the shell structure of a turtle, consisting primarily of the animal’s broad ribcage. The spine and ribs are fused to bony plates beneath the skin which interlock to form a hard shell v- ie top shell **

and that the first step of carapace formation is the ossification of - Ossification is the process of bone formation, in which connective tissues, such as cartilage are turned to bone or bone-like tissue

the neural plates coupled with a broadening of the ribs. This corresponds to early embryonic stages of carapace formation in extant (existing) turtles, and shows that the turtle shell is not derived from a fusion of osteoderms.

Phylogenetic analysis -**In biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms (e.g., species, populations), which is discovered through molecular sequencing data. The term phylogenetics is of Greek origin from the terms phyle/phylon (φυλή/φῦλον), meaning “tribe, race,” and genetikos (γενετικός), meaning “relative to birth” from genesis (γένεσις ) “birth”). **

places the new species basal (before) to all known turtles, fossil and extant. The marine deposits that yielded the fossils indicate that this primitive turtle inhabited marginal areas of the sea or river deltas.
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5

It used to be the case that turtle evolution was a mystery, because the fossils that had been found all had top and bottom shells. A new fossil has been discovered that appears to pre-date all know turtle fossils. This fossil has a fully developed belly shell and only a rudimentary top shell. The fossil also shows that the shell did not form from the joining together of armor plates, but rather from the tissue that forms skin and nerves.

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Thanks, all, especially Astro. I’m piecing that together into something I can hand out.

7

You’ve got the information you need now, but I just had to speak up to wish you the greatest success with your class. I haven’t encountered very many evangelicals who are willing to entertain the concept that science and faith are not in competition (except where people force them to be, whether it’s atheists or evangelical, fundamentalist, etc. Christians).

At least from high school, I understood that science works, and is essential to make practically all of the things we take for granted in modern society, and to make them work - especially in the areas of medicine and electronics - depend upon science. If modern physics and the biology that depends on its underpinnings (the theories and developments of the last century or so) weren’t consistent, we wouldn’t have what we have. It never fails to strike me as incongruous that people who insist on a Young Earth readily buy and use technology, and accept medical treatments based on that same science they consider inherently wrong and/or evil.

I’m another evangelical, BTW, :slight_smile: and am equally completely persuaded of the reality of my Christian faith. But it’s about as useless to even try to discuss it with most adult evangelicals as it is to try to discuss faith with the more dogmatic atheists. Your window of opportunity is very small. I most devoutly hope that you are not risking the wrath of parents - or at least, that they are not able to cause you problems over it.