Helochelydridae

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Helochelydridae
Temporal range: Berriasian–Maastrichtian
Helochelydra skull.png
Helochelydra nopcsai skull
FMNH Naomichelys.jpg
Shell of Naomichelys
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Pantestudines
Clade: Testudinata
Clade: Perichelydia
Family: Helochelydridae
Nopsca, 1928
Genera

See text

Synonyms [1]

Solemydidae Lapparent and Murelaga 1997

The Helochelydridae are an extinct family of stem-turtles known from fossils found in North America and Europe spanning the Early to Late Cretaceous. [1] [2]

Contents

Description

The skull, shell and osteoderms of helochelydrids are covered in small, cylindrical protuberances, which are a distinctive characteristic of the group. [3] They are thought to be terrestrial, based on the presence of limb osteoderms (granicones) and bone histology. [4] Their skull morphology is dissimilar to that of extant tortoises, suggesting an omnivorous habit similar to that of box turtles. [5]

Taxonomy

Helochelydridae includes all turtles that are more closely related to Helochelydra than Sichuanchelys , Meiolania , or extant turtles. [6] Although referred to as Solemydidae in recent literature on extinct turtles, Helochelydridae has priority over Solemydidae. They are placed as part of the clade Perichelydia. [7] Some recent studies have recovered them as paracryptodires, [8] [9] though other studies have found them to be more basal than paracryptodires. [10] [11]

Genera

Indeterminate remains most similar to “Helochelydra” anglica and “Helochelydra” bakewelli have been reported from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed of France. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Nuthetes</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Nuthetes is the name given to a genus of theropod dinosaur, likely a dromaeosaurid, known only from fossil teeth and jaw fragments found in rocks of the middle Berriasian age in the Cherty Freshwater Member of the Lulworth Formation in England and also the Angeac-Charente bonebed in France. As a dromaeosaurid, Nuthetes would have been a small predator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bothremydidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Bothremydidae is an extinct family of side-necked turtles (Pleurodira) known from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. They are closely related to Podocnemididae, and are amongst the most widely distributed pleurodire groups, with their fossils having been found in Africa, India, the Middle East, Europe, North America and South America. Bothremydids were aquatic turtles with a high morphological diversity, indicative of generalist, molluscivorous, piscivorous and possibly herbivorous grazing diets, with some probably capable of suction feeding. Unlike modern pleurodires, which are exclusively freshwater, bothremydids inhabited freshwater, marine and coastal environments. Their marine habits allowed bothremydids to disperse across oceanic barriers into Europe and North America during the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). The youngest records of the group are indeterminate remains from Saudi Arabia and Oman, dating to the Miocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paracryptodira</span> Extinct clade of turtles

Paracryptodira is an extinct group of reptiles in the clade Testudinata, known from the Jurassic to Paleogene of North America and Europe. Initially treated as a suborder sister to Cryptodira, they were then thought to be a very primitive lineage inside the Cryptodira according to the most common use of the latter taxon. They are now often regarded as late-diverging stem-turtles, lying outside the clade formed by Cryptodira and Pleurodira. The paracryptodires are said to have phylogenic relationships, noted as primary subclades, within the Baenidae and Pleurosternidae. Within each subclade, lies many biodiverse turtles that are continuously being investigated and added to the fossil record. Paracryptodires are divided into three main groups, Compsemydidae, known from the Late Jurassic to Paleocene of North America and Europe, Pleurosternidae, known from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of North America and Europe, and Baenidae, known from the Early Cretaceous to Eocene of North America. The latter two groups are more closely related to each other than to Compsemys, forming the clade Baenoidea.

<i>Axelrodichthys</i> Extinct genus of coelacanths

Axelrodichthys is an extinct genus of mawsoniid coelacanth from the Cretaceous of Africa, North and South America, and Europe. Several species are known, the remains of which were discovered in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of Brazil, North Africa, and possibly Mexico, as well as in the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco (Cenomanian), Madagascar and France. The Axelrodichthys of the Lower Cretaceous frequented both brackish and coastal marine waters while the most recent species lived exclusively in fresh waters. The French specimens are the last known fresh water coelacanths. Most of the species of this genus reached 1 metre to 2 metres in length. Axelrodichthys was named in 1986 by John G. Maisey in honor of the American ichthyologist Herbert R. Axelrod.

<i>Glyptops</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Glyptops is an extinct genus of pleurosternid freshwater turtle known from the Late Jurassic of North America.

<i>Uluops</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Uluops is an extinct genus of paracryptodire turtle from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) of North America. The type and only species is Uluops uluops, which is known from a single skull from the Morrison Formation.

Compsemys is an extinct genus of prehistoric turtles from the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene of North America and possibly Europe. The type species C. victa, first described by Joseph Leidy from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana in 1856, and another probable species C. russelli, described in 2012, from Paleocene deposits in France. Its affinites have long been uncertain, but it has recently been considered to be the most basal member of Paracryptodira, despite the clade first appearing in the Late Jurassic, and is sometimes included in its own family, Compsemydidae. A revision in 2020 found Compsemydidae to be more expansive, also containing Riodevemys and Selenemys from the Late Jurassic of Europe, and Peltochelys from the Early Cretaceous of Europe.

<i>Pleurosternon</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Pleurosternon is an extinct genus of freshwater pleurosternid turtle from the latest Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous of Europe. Its type species, P. bullockii was described by the paleontologist Richard Owen in 1853. Since then, and throughout the late 19th century, many fossil turtles were incorrectly assigned to this genus, though only two are currently considered valid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baenidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Baenidae is an extinct family of paracryptodiran turtles known from the Early Cretaceous to Eocene of North America. While during the Early Cretaceous they are found across North America, during the Late Cretaceous they are only found in Laramidia, having disappeared from Appalachia. The majority of lineages survived the K-Pg Extinction, but the family was extinct by the latest Eocene. The name of the type genus, Baena, appears to be of Native American origin. They are primarily found in freshwater deposits, and are considered to be aquatic, with a largely generalist habit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Araripemydidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Araripemydidae is a family of freshwater aquatic turtles belonging to the order Pleurodira, known from the Early Cretaceous of South America and Africa. The family contains two recognised monotypic genera, Araripemys and Taquetochelys, from the Santana Group of Brazil and the Elrhaz Formation of Niger, respectively, which date to the Aptian-Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. They are consider to be the most basal lineage within the Pelomedusoides. They are thought to have been specialised suction feeders. Laganemys was named in 2013 but was later determined to be synonymous with Taquetochelys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macrobaenidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Macrobaenidae is an extinct family of turtles, known from the Early Cretaceous to Paleogene of Laurasia. Their relationships to other turtles and whether or not 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleurosternidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Pleurosternidae is an extinct family of freshwater turtles belonging to Paracryptodira. They are definitively known from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Western Europe and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinemydidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Sinemydidae is an extinct family of turtles from Cretaceous to Paleocene deposits in Asia and North America. 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.

<i>Helochelydra</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Helochelydra is an extinct genus of extinct stem turtle known from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England.

Helochelys is an extinct genus of stem turtle known from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of southern Germany.

<i>Naomichelys</i> Extinct genus of turtles

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.

Solemys is an extinct genus of stem turtle known from the Late Cretaceous of southern France and eastern Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perichelydia</span> Clade of reptiles

Perichelydia is a clade within Pantestudines known from the Middle Jurassic to Holocene. Alongside crown group Testudines, it also contains Helochelydridae, which is known from the Cretaceous of Europe and North America, Sichuanchelyidae from the Middle Jurassic to Paleocene of Asia and Europe, Meiolaniformes, which is known from the Cretaceous to Holocene of South America, Australia and Oceania, and Spoochelys, known from the Mid-Cretaceous Griman Creek Formation of Australia. Kallokibotion from the Late Cretaceous of Europe is also considered part of this group. Several other groups, including the proposed clade Angolachelonia, Paracryptodira, Macrobaenidae, Sinemydidae and Xinjiangchelyidae, which are sometimes considered members of Cryptodira, have also been found outside crown Testudines in several analyses. These groups are usually considered to be closer to the crown group than the other members of Perichelydia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalassochelydia</span> Extinct clade of turtles

Thalassochelydia is a clade of extinct marine turtles from the Late Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of Europe and South America. The group is defined as including Eurysternum, Plesiochelys and Thalassemys to the exclusion of Pelomedusa, Testudo and Protostega. While a clade uniting the families Eurysternidae, Plesiochelyidae and Thalassemydidae had been supported by phylogenetic evidence, a name was not given for the clade until 2017, when Jérémy Anquetin and colleagues coined Thalassochelydia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compsemydidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Compsemydidae is an extinct family of turtles, likely belonging to the clade Paracryptodira. The earliest undisputed member is Tongemys from the Berriasian age of the Early Cretaceous; two Late Jurassic genera have also sometimes been included in the group, but may alternatively be members of the family Pleurosternidae. The genus Compsemys survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event and lasted until the Thanetian age of the Paleocene.

References

  1. 1 2 "†Helochelydridae Nopsca 1928". Paleobiology Database. Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  2. Joyce WG; Rabi M; Clark JM; Xu X. (2016). "A toothed turtle from the Late Jurassic of China and the global biogeographic history of turtles". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 16 (1): 236. doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0762-5. PMC   5084352 . PMID   27793089.
  3. Gentry, Andrew D.; Ebersole, Jun A. (2021-08-10). "The first occurrence of the stem turtle Naomichelys from the Late Cretaceous of eastern North America". Historical Biology. 34 (7): 1129–1136. doi:10.1080/08912963.2021.1962855. ISSN   0891-2963. S2CID   238677455.
  4. Scheyer, T. M.; Pérez-García, A.; Murelaga, X. (March 2015). "Shell bone histology of solemydid turtles (stem Testudines): palaeoecological implications". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 15 (1): 199–212. doi:10.1007/s13127-014-0188-0. ISSN   1439-6092. S2CID   18628827.
  5. WALTER, J.G., CHAPMAN S.D., MOODY R.T.J., and WALKER, C.A. 2011. The skull of the solemydid turtle Helochelydra nopcsai from the Early Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight (UK) and a review of Solemydidae IN BARRETT, P.M. and MILNER, A.R. (eds.) Studies on Fossil Tetrapods. Speicial Papers in Palaeontology, 86, 75-97.
  6. 1 2 Hans-Dieter Sues (August 6, 2019). The Rise of Reptiles. 320 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 53. ISBN   9781421428680.
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  8. Rollot, Yann; Evers, Serjoscha W.; Joyce, Walter G. (December 2021). "A redescription of the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) turtle Uluops uluops and a new phylogenetic hypothesis of Paracryptodira". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. 140 (1): 23. doi:10.1186/s13358-021-00234-y. ISSN   1664-2376. PMC   8550081 . PMID   34721284.
  9. Rollot, Yann; Evers, Serjoscha W.; Pierce, Stephanie E.; Joyce, Walter G. (2022-11-02). "Cranial osteology, taxonomic reassessment, and phylogenetic relationships of the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) turtle Trinitichelys hiatti (Paracryptodira)". PeerJ. 10: e14138. doi:10.7717/peerj.14138. ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   9636874 . PMID   36345484.
  10. Tong, Haiyan; Tortosa, Thierry; Buffetaut, Eric; Dutour, Yves; Turini, Eric; Claude, Julien (January 2022). "A compsemydid turtle from the Upper Cretaceous of Var, southern France". Annales de Paléontologie. 108 (1): 102536. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2022.102536. S2CID   248792130.
  11. Tong, Haiyan; Buffetaut, Eric; Méchin, Patrick; Méchin-Salessy, Annie; Claude, Julien (2023-01-03). "A Solemys Skull from the Late Cretaceous of Southern France". Diversity. 15 (1): 58. doi:10.3390/d15010058. ISSN   1424-2818.
  12. A. Pérez-García; E. Espílez; L. Mampel; L. Alcalá (2019). "A new basal turtle represented by the two most complete skeletons of Helochelydridae in Europe". Cretaceous Research. 107: Article 104291. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104291. S2CID   210279023.
  13. 1 2 Joyce, Walter G. (2022-10-04). "A review of helochelydrid shell material from late Albian to early Cenomanian greensands of Southern England, United Kingdom". The Anatomical Record: ar.25086. doi: 10.1002/ar.25086 . ISSN   1932-8486. PMID   36193668. S2CID   252693787.
  14. Ronan Allain, Romain Vullo, Lee Rozada, Jérémy Anquetin, Renaud Bourgeais, et al.. Vertebrate paleobiodiversity of the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte (southwestern France): implications for continental faunal turnover at the J/K boundary. Geodiversitas, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris, In press. ffhal-03264773f