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,[1][2] with some probably capable of suction feeding.[2] Unlike modern pleurodires, which are exclusively freshwater, bothremydids inhabited freshwater, marine and coastal environments.[1] Their marine habits allowed bothremydids to disperse across oceanic barriers into Europe and North America during the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian).[3] The youngest records of the group are indeterminate remains from Saudi Arabia and Oman, dating to the Miocene.[4]

Bothremydidae
Temporal range: Aptian–Miocene
Galianemys Skull
Shell of Taphrosphys
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Pleurodira
Hyperfamily: Pelomedusoides
Family: Bothremydidae
Baur, 1891
Subfamilies

See text

Taxonomy edit

The family is split into two subfamilies and a number of tribes.[5]

Bothremydidae

Phylogeny edit

Below is a cladogram by Gaffney et al. in 2006:[8]

Chelidae

References edit

  1. ^ a b Joyce, WG; Lyson, TR; Kirkland, JI (September 28, 2016). "An early bothremydid (Testudines, Pleurodira) from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Utah, North America". PeerJ. 4: e2502. doi:10.7717/peerj.2502. PMC 5045886. PMID 27703852.
  2. ^ a b Hermanson, Guilherme; Benson, Roger B. J.; Farina, Bruna M.; Ferreira, Gabriel S.; Langer, Max C.; Evers, Serjoscha W. (November 2022). "Cranial ecomorphology of turtles and neck retraction as a possible trigger of ecological diversification". Evolution. 76 (11): 2566–2586. doi:10.1111/evo.14629. ISSN 0014-3820. PMC 9828723. PMID 36117268.
  3. ^ Pérez-García, A.; Antunes, M.T.; Barroso-Barcenilla, F.; Callapez, P.M.; Segura, M.; Soares, A.F.; Torices, A. (October 2017). "A bothremydid from the middle Cenomanian of Portugal identified as one of the oldest pleurodiran turtles in Laurasia". Cretaceous Research. 78: 61–70. Bibcode:2017CrRes..78...61P. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2017.05.031.
  4. ^ de Lapparent de Broin, France; Murelaga, Xabier; Pérez-García, Adán; Farrés, Francesc; Altimiras, Jacint (2018-09-28). "Supplementary information:The turtles from the upper Eocene, Osona County (Ebro Basin, Catalonia, Spain): new material and its faunistic and environmental context". Fossil Record. 21 (2): 237–284. doi:10.5194/fr-21-237-2018. ISSN 2193-0066. S2CID 55783731.
  5. ^ The Paleontology Database Bothremydidae entry accessed on 26 January 2011
  6. ^ Pérez-García, Adán (2016). "A new turtle taxon (Podocnemidoidea, Bothremydidae) reveals the oldest known dispersal event of the crown Pleurodira from Gondwana to Laurasia". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 15 (9): 709–731. doi:10.1080/14772019.2016.1228549. S2CID 88840423. Pan-Pleurodira is one of the two clades of extant turtles (i.e. Testudines). Its crown group, Pleurodira, has a Gondwanan origin being known from the Barremian. Cretaceous turtle fauna of Gondwana was composed almost exclusively of pleurodires. Extant pleurodires live in relatively warm regions, with a geographical distribution restricted to tropical regions that were part of Gondwana.
  7. ^ Pérez-García, Adán (2018-08-03). "New insights on the only bothremydid turtle (Pleurodira) identified in the British record: Palemys bowerbankii new combination". Palaeontologia Electronica. 21 (2): 1–12. doi:10.26879/849. ISSN 1094-8074.
  8. ^ Gaffney, E. S.; Tong, H.; Meylan, P. A. (2006-11-17). "Evolution of the side-necked turtles: The families Bothremydidae, Euraxemydidae, and Araripemydidae" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 300. New York: American Museum of Natural History: 1–700. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2006)300[1:EOTSTT]2.0.CO;2. hdl:2246/5824. S2CID 85790134. The family Bothremydidae is a large and diverse group extending from the Albian to the Eocene in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and India. Its monophyly is supported by the presence of a wide exoccipital-quadrate contact, a eustachian tube separated from the incisura columellae auris usually by bone to form a bony canal for the stapes, absence of a fossa precolumellaris, a supraoccipital-quadrate contact (except in the tribe Taphrosphyini), and a posterior enlargement of the fossa orbitalis.