Cyclanorbinae, also known commonly as the flapshell turtles, is a subfamily of softshell turtles in the family Trionychidae. The subfamily is native to Africa and Asia.

Cyclanorbinae
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous to recent, 70.6–0 Ma
Indian flapshell turtle
Lissemys punctata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Trionychidae
Subfamily: Cyclanorbinae
Lydekker, 1889

Taxonomy edit

Morphological evidence supports Cyclanorbinae being the sister group to the Plastomeninae, an extinct subfamily of softshell turtles that inhabited North America from the Cretaceous to the Eocene.[1][2]

Genera edit

The subfamily Cyclanorbinae contains the following three extant genera.[3]

One extinct prehistoric genus is also known from fossil remains: Nemegtemys Danilov et al., 2014, from the Cretaceous of Mongolia.[4]

Geographic range edit

Species in the genera Cyclanorbis and Cycloderma are found in Africa; species in the genus Lissemys are found in Asia.[5]

References edit

  1. ^ Joyce, Walter G.; Revan, Ariel; Lyson, Tyler R.; Danilov, Igor G. (October 2009). "Two New Plastomenine Softshell Turtles from the Paleocene of Montana and Wyoming". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 50 (2): 307–325. doi:10.3374/014.050.0202. ISSN 0079-032X. S2CID 85505337.
  2. ^ Jasinski, Steven E.; Heckert, Andrew B.; Sailar, Ciara; Lichtig, Asher J.; Lucas, Spencer G.; Dodson, Peter (2022-07-01). "A softshell turtle (Testudines: Trionychidae: Plastomeninae) from the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota, USA, with implications for the evolutionary relationships of plastomenines and other trionychids". Cretaceous Research. 135: 105172. Bibcode:2022CrRes.13505172J. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105172. ISSN 0195-6671. S2CID 246803273.
  3. ^ Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (Rhodin, Anders G.J.; Parham, James F.; van Dijk, Peter Paul; Iverson, John B.) (2009)."Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy and Synonymy, 2009 Update". Archived 2016-04-06 at the Wayback Machine Chelonian Research Monographs (5): 000.39-000.84. (Cyclanorbinae, pp. 000.55-000.56).
  4. ^ "Fossilworks: Nemegtemys ". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Cyclanorbinae". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading edit

  • Lydekker R (1889). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part III. Containing the Order Chelonia. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 239 pp. (Cyclanorbinae, new subfamily, p. x).