The fact that it had a plastron without a carapace was pretty strong evidence for the developmental biologists' hypothesis, that the plastron evolved first.
The development of the bottom half of the shell, the plastron, is driven by neural crest cells, which can produce a variety of different cell types including neurons, cartilage and bone.
I mean, it had a shell, with a flat plastron on the bottom that was fused to a carapace on top — so it had all the requirements for what makes an official turtle.