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User:HouseOfChange/Algorachelus

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HouseOfChange/Algorachelus
Temporal range: Cenomanian
~100.5–93.9 Ma
Dorsal (a) and ventral (b) views of shell
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Order:
Testudines
Family:
Bothremydidae
Genus:
Algorachelus

Pérez-García et al., 2017[1]
Type species
†Algorachelus peregrinus
Pérez-García, 2017
Other species
  • †A. parva Haas, 1978
  • †A. tibert Joyce et al., 2016

Algorachelus is an extinct genus of turtles belonging to the family Bothremydidae. When first described in 2017, it represented "the oldest known dispersal event of the crown Pleurodira from Gondwana to Laurasia."[1][2]

The genus is named for the Spanish town Algora, where the type species A. peregrinus was first discovered.[3]

Algorachalus and the dispersal of pleurodiran turtles edit

 
Pre-history of Laurasia and Gondwana (aka Gondwanaland)

Pan-Pleurodira, the crown group of modern "side-necked" turtles, first appeared in Gondwana in the early (or lower) Cretaceous, during the Barremian age (that is, between roughly 130 Ma (million years ago) and 125 Ma.) Nearly all surviving pleurodires live in warm-weather regions of Africa and South America that were once part of Gondwana.[1] Because pleurodires have their pelvis fused to the shell, they are awkward on land, and all surviving species are aquatic.[4]

Roughly 50 Ma, Gondwana collided with the northern supercontinent Laurasia.[5] Several species of bothremydid turtles, however, had adapted to "near-shore marine conditions" and were thus able to migrate from Africa to Europe while the Tethys Sea gap was still large.[6] For example, the bothremid Rosasia soutoi was already in Portugal during the late Campanian-early Maastrichtian (c. 70–80 Ma.)[2] Describing the bothremid Foxemys (France and Hungary, Santonian c. 85 Ma), Rabi et al. (2012) state "the migration could only happen after the Bothremydina physiologically adapted to a marine habitat and their osmoregulatory systems were developed enough to constantly live in saltwater."[7]

According to its discoverer Adán Pérez-García, the species Algorachelus peregrinus originated in Northern Africa "during the Upper Cretaceous" but migrated from its coastal environment there to Europe about 95 million years ago, well before the closure of the Tethys Sea.[8]



Joyce et al attribute the following to Gaffney2006 "bothremydids are notable for exhibiting high levels of cranial disparity indicative of generalist, molluscivorous, and piscivorous diets and for inhabiting freshwater, estuarine, and costal environments (Gaffney, Tong & Meylan, 2006)." [9]

They also say the following: "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. Although there is a diversity of triturating surfaces within the family, primitively bothremydids have a posteriorly wide triturating surface with a significant palatine contribution in the upper jaw."

Type species Algorachelus peregrinus edit

  • Algorachelus peregrinus Pérez-García 2017 Utrillas Formation, Spain, Nazaré, Portugal, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian)[1][10]

The genus name combines "Algora," the name of the town where first type specimen was found, with "chelus," a Latinization of the Greek word for "tortoise."[11] The species name "peregrinus" means "wandering."[12]

Despite Algora's location in central Spain, it seems to have been coastal in the Cenomanian, with sandy sediments and evidence of tides.[3] The Utrillas Formation also shows evidence of erosion by rivers.[13]

Turtle shells that Pérez-García assigned to A. peregrinus were later discovered in Cenomanian sites in Nazaré (Portugal, 2017)[2] and in Cabrejas del Pinar (Spain, 2020).[14]

Other species edit

Two other species of extinct turtles, previously described by other researchers, have also been assigned to Algorchalus by Pérez-García.[14]

  • Algorachelus parva (Haas 1978) Bet-Meir Formation, Amminadav Formation, Palestine, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian,) also described as Podocnemis judaea and Podocnemis parva.[15]
  • Algorachelus tibert (Joyce et al. 2016) Naturita Formation, Utah, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian)[16] The assignment of this species to Algorachelus is disputed by some who consider it instead the only species of the genus Paiutemys.[17]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Pérez-García, Adán (2017). "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.
  2. ^ a b c A. Pérez-García, A.; Antunes, M.T.; Barroso-Barcenilla, F.; Callapez, P.M. (2017). "A bothremydid from the middle Cenomanian of Portugal identified as one of the oldest pleurodiran turtles in Laurasia". Cretaceous Research. 78: 61–70. ISSN 0195-6671. Retrieved December 4, 2021. The taxon from Nazaré is identified as Algorachelus peregrinus, this form is also present in the contemporaneous beds in Spain, and is the oldest member of Bothremydidae in Laurasia. Algorachelus peregrinus is confirmed here to be a coastal form, which facilitated its spread.
  3. ^ a b Angélica Torices; Fernando Barroso-Barcenilla; Oscar Cambra-Moo; Adán Pérez-García; Manuel Segura (2012). "Palaeontological and palaeobiogeographical implications of the new Cenomanian vertebrate site of Algora, Guadalajara, Spain". Cretaceous Research. 37: 231–239. ISSN 0195-6671. Retrieved December 3, 2021. A new Cenomanian fossil site has been located in Algora, in the Castilian Branch of the Iberian Ranges, central Spain. The outcrop is in the upper part of the Utrillas Formation in sediments that can be interpreted as sandy coastal deposits (bars and channels) with subtidal and intertidal events. The vertebrate fauna associated with this site is composed of mixed remains of fishes, turtles, crocodyliforms and dinosaurs, with Laurasian and Gondwanan affinities.
  4. ^ Mayerl, Christopher J.; Brainerd, Elizabeth L.; Blob, Richard W. (2016-06-23). "Pelvic girdle mobility of cryptodire and pleurodire turtles during walking and swimming". The Journal of Experimental Biology. 219 (17): 2650–2658. doi:10.1242/jeb.141622. ISSN 0022-0949. PMID 27340204.
  5. ^ Tang, Carol Marie (2021). "Tethys Sea". Britannica. Britannica. Retrieved December 7, 2021. Tethys closed about 50 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era, when continental fragments of Gondwana—India, Arabia, and Apulia (parts of what are now Italy, the Balkan states, Greece, and Turkey)—finally collided with the rest of Eurasia.
  6. ^ Joyce, WG; Lyson, TR; Kirkland, JI (September 28, 2016). "An early bothremydid (Testudines, Pleurodira) from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Utah, North America". PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.2502. PMC 5045886. PMID 27703852. Retrieved December 23, 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  7. ^ Rabi, Marton; Tong, Haiyan; Botfalvai, Gabor (2012). "A new species of the side-necked turtle Foxemys (Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary and the historical biogeography of the Bothremydini". Geological Magazine. 149 (4): 662–674. doi:10.1017/S0016756811000756. ...the migration could only happen after the Bothremydina physiologically adapted to a marine habitat and their osmoregulatory systems were developed enough to constantly live in saltwater. This adaptation already appeared by the Santonian as both Bothremys arabicus and Chedighaii or Bothremys barberi probably had a near-shore marine lifestyle
  8. ^ "The incredible journey of the first African tortoise that arrived in Europe". FECYT Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. December 18, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2021. About 95 million years ago, a river turtle adapted to marine environments and made an extraordinary migration from the ancient continent of Gondwana, which grouped what is now Africa and South America, to Laurasia, the Northern continental mass of which Europe, Asia and North America were part...The researchers themselves call the turtle 'traveler', but the journey of Algorachelus peregrinus, as they have called it, did not start in Algora (Guadalajara-Spain), where it was recently discovered, but in Africa during the Upper Cretaceous.
  9. ^ Gaffney, E. S.; Tong, H.; Meylan, P. A. (November 17, 2006). "Evolution of the side-necked turtles: The families Bothremydidae, Euraxemydidae, and Araripemydidae". 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.
  10. ^ "Algorachelus peregrinus Pérez-García, 2016". GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. 2021. Retrieved December 4, 2021. Published in: 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.
  11. ^ "Chelus". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved December 8, 2021. Chelus: borrowed from New Latin, irregular Latinization of Greek chélȳs 'tortoise'
  12. ^ "Peregrine". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved December 8, 2021. The word originally meant "foreign," as did its Latin predecessor peregrinus ... which was later broadened to "wandering."
  13. ^ Aróstegui, Julio; Irabien, María; Sangüesa, J.; Zuluaga, Mary (2000). "The Utrillas formation in the Southern border of the Basque-Cantabrian basin: Aspects of stratigraphy minerology and petrogenesis". Estudios Geológicos. 56 (5). Retrieved December 5, 2021. The Utrillas formation located in the southern border of the Basque-Catabrian basin, is mainly composed of sandy materials deposited in a fluvial environment. Two informal units have been distinguished due to field data: a lower coarse-grained unit, interpreted as braided river channel-fills, and a upper fine-grained unit which suggests a meandering river environment.
  14. ^ a b Pérez-García, Adán (2020). "First evidence of a bothremydid turtle (crown Pleurodira) in the middle Cretaceous of Castile and Leon (Spain)". Journal of Iberian Geology. 46: 363–368. doi:10.1007/s41513-020-00146-9. This form of Gondwanan origin, Algorachelus Pérez-García 2017b, is currently represented by three species: Algorachelus parva (Haas 1978), in the middle Cenomanian of Palestine; Algorachelus peregrina Pérez-García 2017b, in the middle to upper Cenomanian of the Iberian Peninsula; and Algorachelus tibert (Joyce, Lyson and Kirkland 2016), in the uppermost Cenomanian of Utah (see Pérez-García 2018 and references therein).
  15. ^ "Podocnemis judaea Haas, 1978". Paleobiology Database. 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2021. Applied name Podocnemis judaea Haas, 1978, Accepted name Podocnemis parva (Haas, 1978)
  16. ^ "Paiutemys tibert Joyce, Lyson & Kirkland, 2016". Paleobiology Database. 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2021. Applied name Podocnemis judaea Haas, 1978, Accepted name Podocnemis parva (Haas, 1978)
  17. ^ Adrian, B.; Smith, H.F.; Noto, C.R. (2021). "An early bothremydid from the Arlington Archosaur Site of Texas". Texas. Sci Rep. 11: 9555. Retrieved December 1, 2021. Paiutemys tibert is known from brackish uppermost Cenomanian deposits of the Laramidian Naturitas Formation in Utah, USA9,13. While some authors have subsumed P. tibert within Algorachelus, Hermanson et al. did not support the position of Paiutemys tibert within the genus Algorachelus.

External links edit

Category:Podocnemididae Category:Prehistoric turtle genera Category:Extinct turtles Category:Fossils of Spain Category:Fossils of Portugal Category:Fossil taxa described in 2017 Category:Cenomanian Stage

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