Archelon

Archelon ischyros

Archelon was a giant sea turtle of the Late Cretaceous period. The first fossil of the creature was unearthed by G.R. Wieland, who shares a somewhat dubious reputation like his two mentors, E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh. Archelon is probably not the most exciting of creatures, but it did make an appearance in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C.

Some liberties were taken with the movie version of Archelon, the most obvious being that it is portrayed as being five time bigger than the actual creature, but I guess nobody claimed that the film was scientifically accurate.

Two models of Archelon are made by Kaiyodo. One is part of the Capsule Q Museum series (left), while the other is from series 3 of the UHA Dinotales line (right).

The Capsule Q turtle is billed as being 1/72 scale, and has multiple ridges on its back similar to a leatherback turtle. The UHA turtle has a smooth shell with a central ridge like more typical depictions of Archelon found in dinosaur art. The UHA turtle is also about 10% larger than the Capsule Q turtle, but can still represent a larger specimen of Archelon.

Harryhausen's design is based on the green sea turtle.