Comparisons with modern turtles and tortoises can yield many clues as to mode of life, descent and evolution. The heavy armour of back and belly which turns land-living forms into the proverbial lazy tortoises, appears to offer certain advantages in the sea. Advantages which proved so great, that the differences between the oldest fossil turtles and their modern relatives are strikingly small. Maybe justifiably so: why change something that works ? In this light, these impressive sea animals were heroes of evolution. They survived all natural disasters which caused most other reptiles to become extinct, and are almost as common now as they were in ancient times. The sea and beaches of the Maastricht Cretaceous are long gone: the landscape has changed over millions of years. But today's turtles closely resemble their relatives from the Cretaceous oceans. They are 'heroes of evolution': Maastricht Hero Turtles.