Photo of the Day #745: Archelon

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A restoration of Archelon in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.


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A restoration of Utahraptor in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.
A restoration of the crocodyliform Goniopholis scavenging a stegosaur carcass. Photographed at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.
A cast of Dimetrodon in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.
A reconstruction of a dead Edmontosaurus on display at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.

Have you ever seen Archelon's appearance in the campy but strangely watchable Raquel Welch movie "One Million Years BC"? It comes clambering out of the sea while the shell tribe is on the beach (and depicted as much larger than it actually was.) One of the women points at it and screams "Archelon"! The cave people in this movie can't speak English, but evidently can speak excellent Latin! That's the only movie I know of where this colossal turtle puts in an appearance, the dinosaurs get all the attention!

By Raymond Minton (not verified) on 27 Oct 2009 #permalink

Raymond; Yes! I have not seen that one in quite a while, but I do remember. Excellent stop-motion animation. I think that appearance of Archelon might get the prize for most obscure prehistoric creature to appear in a theatrically-released film, but if I am wrong I would love to know what trumps it!

I don't remember that scene. I own "One Million Years B.C." but haven't watched it in forever. I bought it mainly for the Raquel Welch cheesecake factor. As I recall, the film is incredibly poorly paced, but the stop-motion effects were great.