Appalachemys | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Pantestudines |
Clade: | Testudinata |
Family: | † Macrobaenidae |
Genus: | † Appalachemys Gentry, Kiernan & Parham, 2023 [1] |
Type species | |
†Appalachemys ebersolei |
Appalachemys is an extinct genus of macrobaenid turtle that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. It is a monotypic genus known from a single species, A. ebersolei, [2] which was named after Jun Ebersole. [3]
Appalachemys lived in Alabama in the Cretaceous. [2]
Archelon is an extinct marine turtle from the Late Cretaceous, and is the largest turtle ever to have been documented, with the biggest specimen measuring 4.6 m (15 ft) from head to tail and 2.2–3.2 t in body mass. It is known only from the Pierre Shale and has one species, A. ischyros. In the past, the genus also contained A. marshii and A. copei, though these have been reassigned to Protostega and Kansastega, respectively. The genus was named in 1895 by American paleontologist George Reber Wieland based on a skeleton from South Dakota, who placed it into the extinct family Protostegidae. The leatherback sea turtle was once thought to be its closest living relative, but now, Protostegidae is thought to be a completely separate lineage from any living sea turtle.
Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American paleontologist and writer of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including 10 novels, series of comic books, and more than 250 published short stories, novellas, and vignettes. Kiernan is a two-time recipient of both the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.
Protostega is an extinct genus of sea turtle containing a single species, Protostega gigas. Its fossil remains have been found in the Smoky Hill Chalk formation of western Kansas, time-equivalent beds of the Mooreville Chalk Formation of Alabama and Campanian beds of the Rybushka Formation. Fossil specimens of this species were first collected in 1871, and named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1872. With a total length of 3.9 metres (13 ft), it is the second-largest sea turtle that ever lived, second only to the giant Archelon, and one of the three largest turtle of all time along Archelon and Gigantatypus.
Protostegidae is a family of extinct marine turtles that lived during the Cretaceous period. The family includes some of the largest sea turtles that ever existed. The largest, Archelon, had a head one metre (39 in) long. Like most sea turtles, they had flattened bodies and flippers for front appendages; protostegids had minimal shells like leatherback turtles of modern times.
Corsochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtle that lived in the Late Cretaceous (Campanian). Zangerl (1960) named the type species, based upon remains found in Alabama within the Mooreville Chalk Formation.
Ctenochelys is an extinct genus of marine turtle, which existed during the Cretaceous period, and lived in the shallow waters of the Western Interior Seaway. Its fossils have been found in the Ripley Formation and Mooreville Chalk of central Alabama, United States. It was first named by C. H. Sternberg in 1904, and contains two species, C. stenoporus and C. acris.
Toxochelys is an extinct genus of marine turtle from the Late Cretaceous period. It is the most commonly found fossilized turtle species in the Smoky Hill Chalk, in western Kansas.
Desmatochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtles belonging to the family Protostegidae. This genus contains two known species, D. lowii and D. padillai. D. lowii was first discovered in 1895, followed by D. padillai in 2015. Having been estimated at over 120 million years old, D. padillai is currently the oldest known species of sea turtle.
Peritresius is an extinct genus of sea turtle from the Late Cretaceous deposits in the US Eastern Seaboard.
The Demopolis Chalk is a geological formation in North America, within the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The chalk was formed by pelagic sediments deposited along the eastern edge of the Mississippi embayment during the middle Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous. It is a unit of the Selma Group and consists of the upper Bluffport Marl Member and a lower unnamed member. Dinosaur and mosasaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the Demopolis Chalk.
Aurorachelys is an extinct genus of turtle which existed in Canada (Nunavut) during the late Cretaceous period, containing a single species, A. gaffneyi.
The Hornerstown Formation is a latest Cretaceous to earliest Paleocene-aged geologic formation in New Jersey. It preserves a variety of fossil remains, including those of dinosaurs, and contains direct evidence of the mass mortality that occurred at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
Paleontology in Alabama refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Alabama. Pennsylvanian plant fossils are common, especially around coal mines. During the early Paleozoic, Alabama was at least partially covered by a sea that would end up being home to creatures including brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and graptolites. During the Devonian the local seas deepened and local wildlife became scarce due to their decreasing oxygen levels.
Macrobaenidae is an extinct family of turtles, known from the Early Cretaceous to Paleogene of Laurasia. Their relationships to other turtles and whether they form a monophlyletic group are controversial. They are typically interpreted as stem or crown group cryptodires, but some more recent analyses have found them to lie outside crown group Testudines. Macrobaenids can be distinguished from other testudinatans by the presence of a carotid fenestra, cruciform plastron with strap-like epiplastra, and a lack of extragulars.
Sinemydidae is an extinct family of turtles from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of East Asia. Their exact position is engimatic, they have alternatively been considered stem-group cryptodires, but also "crownward stem-turtles" alongside Macrobaenidae, Paracryptodira, Xinjiangchelyidae, Thalassochelydia and Sandownidae outside of crown Testudines.
Tingmiatornis is a genus of flighted and possibly diving ornithurine dinosaur from the High Arctic of Canada. The genus contains a single species, T. arctica, described in 2016, which lived during the Turonian epoch of the Cretaceous.
Osteopygis is a genus of extinct turtle. Osteopygis, as traditionally seen, is a chimera: the postcrania belong to a non-marine stem-cryptodire, whilst the crania belong to sea turtles. In 2005, the referred material was split between two taxa: the postcrania remained in Osteopygis, while the crania were reassigned to Euclastes wielandi.
Naomichelys is an extinct genus of helochelydrid stem turtle known from the Cretaceous (Aptian-Campanian) of North America. It is the only member of the family known to be native to North America.
Anatolemys is an extinct turtle genus in the family Macrobaenidae. Two species are known, both of which lived in the Late Cretaceous. Fossils were discovered in the Yalovach Formation of Tajikistan, the Kulbikin Member and Khodzhakul and Bissekty Formations of Uzbekistan and the Bostobe Formation of Kazakhstan. With 70 cm (2.3 ft) in carapace length, Anatolemys maximus was one of the three largest macrobaenids along with Early Cretaceous Yakemys multiporcata and Paleocene Judithemys backmani.
Yakemys is an extinct genus of macrobaenid turtles from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (Tithonian-Valanginian?) lower Phu Kradung Formation of Thailand. It is monotypic, containing a single species, Yakemys multiporcata.