It was June 2025 and a group of researchers traveled seven hours by boat up the Acre River to reach the fossil site known as Patos, located near Aldeia dos Patos, in the territory of the Manchineri indigenous people, in the Indigenous Land Cabeceira do Rio Acre, on the border between Brazil and Peru.
The area has great paleontological importance for the Western Brazilian Amazon and especially for the State of Acre. The author of the testimony keeps a vivid memory of that day, suggesting that the expedition resulted in the discovery of the fossil of the largest freshwater turtle in the world.
Scientific interest in the region began in the late 1970s, when American researchers conducted the first geological and paleontological surveys in the area. Later, between the 1990s and 2000, university paleontologists continued the studies in the region, although the article is interrupted before providing more details about these subsequent research efforts.
