In 2005, a 60-million-year-old fossil specimen was discovered in a Colombian coal mine by a North Carolina State doctoral student named Edwin Cadena. It had a shell that measured about 1.72 metres (5 ft 8 in), making it one of the world's largest turtles.[2][3] They lived 5 million years after the mass extinction event of many species of dinosaurs. Their jaws were massive and powerful enough to eat crocodiles.