A Review of the Fossil Record of New World Turtles of the CladePan-Trionychidae

A Review of the Fossil Record of Turtles of the CladeBaenidae

“…Cope (1872, 1873a reports the type to be from Cottonwood Creek, but in 1884 he reports the locality as Black's Fork. Similar inconsistencies are apparent for numerous trionychid taxa from Cottonwood Creek or Black's Fork (Vitek and Joyce 2015). Many small rivers were historically referred to as Cottonwood Creek, and it is therefore unclear which river Cope (1872, 1873a) referred to.…”

“…In contrast to other groups of turtles from North America, such as Trionychidae (Vitek and Joyce 2015), these baenids were universally based on relatively complete specimens, particularly shells. More strikingly, and again in stark contrast to Trionychidae (Vitek and Joyce 2015), no new species were named for the rest of the 19th century, perhaps because baenids were not diagnosed by nuances in shell sculpturing, as was commonly done for trionychids.…”

“…In contrast to other groups of turtles from North America, such as Trionychidae (Vitek and Joyce 2015), these baenids were universally based on relatively complete specimens, particularly shells. More strikingly, and again in stark contrast to Trionychidae (Vitek and Joyce 2015), no new species were named for the rest of the 19th century, perhaps because baenids were not diagnosed by nuances in shell sculpturing, as was commonly done for trionychids. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lambe (1902Lambe ( , 1906a and Hay (1901Hay ( , 1904aHay ( , 1904b named six new species of baenid turtles from Late Cretaceous deposits in Alberta, Montana and Wyoming. It is notable that most of those taxa are also based on relatively complete shells or skulls.…”

A revision of the trionychid turtle Procyclanorbis sardus Portis, 1901 from the late Miocene of Sardinia (Italy)

“…He noted strong resemblance with the extant African cyclanorbine genera Cyclanorbis and Cycloderma, whereas among extinct taxa, Procyclanorbis sardus was most similar with Trionyx gergensi and T. preschenensis, for which he formally suggested congeneric affinities with his new Sardinian form (Portis, 1901a). However, all such affinities were proposed on the basis of highly variable characters, such as the sculpturing pattern and the shape and size of costals and neurals (Meylan, 1987;Vitek and Joyce, 2015). Furthermore, the type carapace of P. sardus can be readily excluded from Pan-Cyclanorbinae by the absence of a preneural and the lack of split costiform processes on the nuchal (Meylan, 1987).…”

Palaeoamyda messeliananov. comb. (Testudines, Pan-Trionychidae) from the Eocene Messel Pit and Geiseltal localities, Germany, taxonomic and phylogenetic insights

“…With a fossil record that extends from the early Cretaceous to present, Pan-Trionychidae is represented by at least 300 fossil and extant species, and has a geographical distribution that has principally been restricted to the northern continents (Laurasia) (Meylan, 1987; Danilov & Vitek, 2013; Joyce et al, 2013; Crawford et al, 2015; Vitek & Joyce, 2015). Trionychians are represented by two major clades (Pan- Carettochelys and Pan-Trionychidae) (Joyce, 2014; Vitek & Joyce, 2015). Pan-Trionychidae (pan-trionychids) includes most of the iconic soft-shell turtles.…”