Manouria morla resided in the swamps of what is now the Czech Republic throughout the Early Miocene, in between 20 and 17 million years back.

The types is the earliest member of the Manouria family tree, which nowadays populates Southeast Asia just and consists of 4 extinct and 2 living types: the Asian forest tortoise(Manouria emysand the pleased tortoise (Manouria impressa.

“Tortoises (Testudinidae) are a clade of turtles extremely specialized to terrestrial environments, generally residing in semi-arid conditions,” stated Dr. Milan Chroust, a paleontologist with the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, and coworkers.

“Members of the clade Testudinidae bigger than 35-75 cm (14-30 inches) in overall carapace length are categorized as medium to big tortoises, whereas types bigger than 75 cm are thought about to be giant-sized.”

“The living types of the Testudinidae are merely divided into 3 primary various groups: the basal Gopherus and Manouria (recuperated either as a basal genera or as successive branches), in addition to the Geochelona clade and the Testudona clade, the latter 2 making up the subfamily Testudininae.”

The fossilized remains of Manouria morla — parts of the carapace and plastron along with many indetermined shell pieces– were discovered at the Ahníkov I fossil website in one of the most Basin in Bohemia.

The approximated length of the tortoise’s shell is around 50 cm (20 inches).

“The area of Ahníkov I was understood for years as tape-recording a swampy location with flooding rivers and shallow lakes,” the paleontologists stated.

“Thanks to the high variety of juvenile crocodylians, and maybe by the existence of choristoderes, a near-shore wetlands environment was determined too.”

“However, based upon the findings of the genus Manouriaa broadleaf evergreen damp forest in the distance of water, with a rainy season and a drier cool season, comparable to the extant Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand, can be indicated.”

The discovery of Manouria morla extends the paleobiogeographic circulation of the genus Manouria much further to the west, from Asia to the heart of Europe.

“According to our outcomes, it appears that the genus Manouria come from Europe right before the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum and later on infected Asia, where it continues previously,” the scientists stated.

The findings were released on October 3, 2025 in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology

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M. Chroust et al2025. Manouria morla sp. nov., the Ancient One: an Early Miocene big tortoise from the Swamps of Ahníkov, Czechia. Swiss J Palaeontol 144, 63; doi: 10.1186/ s13358-025-00400-6