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New bothremydid turtle (Testudines, Pleurodira) from the Paleocene of northeastern Colombia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Edwin A. Cadena ,
Jonathan I. Bloch  and
Carlos A. Jaramillo
Edwin A. Cadena
Affiliation:
Florida Museum of Natural History, Dickison Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA North Carolina State University, Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, Raleigh, NC, USA,
Jonathan I. Bloch
Affiliation:
Florida Museum of Natural History, Dickison Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Carlos A. Jaramillo
Affiliation:
Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archeology, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon AA, 0843-03092, Panama
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Abstract

A new turtle, Puentemys mushaisaensis, from the middle to late Paleocene Cerrejón Formation of Colombia, is described on the basis of a partial skull and many partial to nearly complete carapaces and plastrons representing multiple ontogenetic stages. Whereas P. mushaisaensis is unique in aspects of its shell morphology, it shares many diagnostic characteristics of bothremydid pleurodirans, including a long exoccipital-quadrate contact, a very low and rounded almost circular carapace, and a thinner internal bone cortex than that of the external cortex in both the carapace and plastron. With a maximum carapacial length of 151 cm, P. mushaisaensis is the largest known bothremydid turtle and represents the first occurrence of bothremydids in the Paleogene of South American tropics. Results from a cladistic analysis of bothremydids indicate that P. mushaisaensis shares a close relationship with Foxemys mechinorum from the Late Cretaceous of Europe, indicating a wide-spread geographical distribution for bothremydines during the Late Cretaceous–Paleocene.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 86 , Issue 4 , July 2012 , pp. 688 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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