Journal article

A review of the fossil record of turtles of the clade Thalassochelydia

  • Anquetin, Jérémy JURASSICA Museum, 2900 Porrentruy, Switzerland - Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Püntener, Christian 2 Section d’archéologie et paléontologie, Office de la culture, République et Canton du Jura, Porrentruy, Switzerland
  • Joyce, Walter G. Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
    01.10.2017
Published in:
  • Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. - 2017, vol. 58, no. 2, p. 317–369
English The Late Jurassic (Oxfordian to Tithonian) fossil record of Europe and South America has yielded a particularly rich assemblage of aquatic pan-cryptodiran turtles that are herein tentatively hypothesized to form a monophyletic group named Thalassochelydia. Thalassochelydians were traditionally referred to three families, Eurysternidae, Plesiochelyidae, and Thalassemydidae, but the current understanding of phylogenetic relationships is insufficient to support the monophyly of either group. Given their pervasive usage in the literature, however, these three names are herein retained informally. Relationships with marine turtles from the Cretaceous have been suggested in the past, but these hypotheses still lack strong character support. Thalassochelydians are universally found in near-shore marine sediments and show adaptations to aquatic habitats, but isotopic evidence hints at a broad spectrum of specializations ranging from freshwater aquatic to fully marine. A taxonomic review of the group concludes that of 68 named taxa, 27 are nomina valida, 18 are nomina invalida, 18 are nomina dubia, and 5 nomina oblita.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Géosciences
Language
  • English
Classification
Palaeontology
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/306020
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