Brodiechelys

Brodiechelys is an extinct genus of terrestrial turtle belonging to the suborder Cryptodira. Remains of Brodiechelys dated back to the Early Cretaceous period (Berriasian to Barremian stages), and have been found in the United Kingdom and Spain.

Brodiechelys
Temporal range: Berriasian to Barremian, 140.2–122.46 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: †Xinjiangchelyidae
Genus: †Brodiechelys
Nopcsa, 1928
Type species
†Plesiochelys brodiei
Species
  • †B. brodiei (Lydekker, 1889)
  • †B. royoi Pérez-García et al., 2014
Synonyms

The type species, B. brodiei, was thought to only come from the Wealden of the United Kingdom, however, specimens of ten shells were found in the locality of Brighstone Bay in the Wessex Sub-basin of the Isle of Wight, UK. Fragmentary specimens of shell corresponding to an ndeterminate species were also found outside Wealden; these specimens were unearthed in the Weald Sub-basin of Sussex, UK. The discovery of the species B. royoi in the Maestrazgo Basin of Morella, Spain had made paleontologists realize that some freshwater turtle taxa had a wide European distribution during the Early Cretaceous, and at the same time being present in both the UK and the Iberian Peninsula. B. royoi was assigned to Brodiechelys due to the identified similarities it had with B. brodiei, however, B. royoi possessed several autapomorphies, and therefore its specimens could not have belonged to B. brodiei.[1]

References
  1. Pérez-García, A., Gasulla, J.M. & Ortega, F. (2014). "A new turtle species of Brodiechelys from the Early Cretaceous of Spain: Systematic and palaeobiogeographic implications" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 59 (2): 333–342.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)


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