| Americhelydia | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Common musk turtle ( Sternotherus odoratus ), a species of the family Kinosternidae | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Suborder: | Cryptodira |
| Clade: | Americhelydia Crawford et al., 2014 |
| Subclades | |
Americhelydia is a clade of turtles that consists of sea turtles, snapping turtles, the Central American river turtle and mud turtles, supported by several lines of molecular work. [4] [5] [6] Prior to these studies some morphological and developmental work have considered sea turtles to be basal members of Cryptodira and kinosternids related to the trionychians in the clade Trionychoidea. [7] [8] Americhelydia and Testudinoidea, both clades within Durocryptodira (hardshell turtles), split apart during the early Cretaceous. [9] [10]