Podocnemididae

Podocnemididae is a family of pleurodire turtles native to Madagascar and northern South America. Podocnemidid turtles are commonly called "side-necked turtles" in direct reference to their inability to retract their heads backwards, but hide them sideways. In addition, their pelvis[1] is fused to the shell which prevents any pelvic motion. Due to their pelvis being immobile they are unable to walk on land, which requires greater pelvis[2] mobility. For this reason, Podocnemididae turtles are best suited for swimming and as a result live in aquatic environments. These turtles are all aquatic[3], inhabiting streams and other flowing water. Their shells are streamlined to aid in swimming.

Podocnemididae
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous to present, 84.9–0 Ma
Yellow-spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Pleurodira
Family: Podocnemididae
Cope, 1868
Extant genera

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Synonyms

Podocnemidinae

Taxonomy and systematics

Podocnemididae has been merged into the closely related family Pelomedusidae as the subfamily Podocnemidinae. Some authors still maintain this classification,[4] but here it is preferred to keep them distinct families in the superfamily Pelomedusoidea instead.

The family Podocnemididae contains only three living genera, two of them monotypic:

The family also contains a number of prehistoric genera, including Albertwoodemys, Bairdemys, Bauruemys, Brontochelys, Caninemys, Cordichelys, Dacquemys, Lapparentemys, Latentemys, Lemurchelys, Mogharemys, Neochelys, Papoulemys, Peiropemys, Pricemys, Shweboemys, Stereogenys, Turkanemys, Cambaremys, Carbonemys, Cerrejonemys, Kenyemys, Roxochelys and Stupendemys.[5] Stupendemys lived around 5.5 million years ago in northern South America, and was the largest freshwater turtle and the largest pleurodire known to date.

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References
  1. Wise, Taylor B.; Stayton, C. Tristan (2017-03-01). "Side-necked Versus Hidden-necked: A Comparison of Shell Morphology Between Pleurodiran and Cryptodiran Turtles". Herpetologica. 73 (1): 18. doi:10.1655/HERPETOLOGICA-D-15-00038. ISSN 0018-0831.
  2. Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R.; Winkler, Jasmin D.; Wurst, Linda (2007-04-19). "Autopodial skeleton evolution in side-necked turtles (Pleurodira): Pleurodire autopodial evolution". Acta Zoologica. 88 (3): 199–209. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6395.2007.00267.x.
  3. 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.
  4. Fritz Jürgen Obst (1998). "Pelomedusinae". In H. G. Cogger; R. G. Zweifel (eds.). Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN 0-12-178560-2.
  5. Eugene S. Gaffney; Peter A. Meylan; Roger C. Wood; Elwyn Simons; Diogenes De Almeida Campos (2011). "Evolution of the Side-Necked Turtles: The Family Podocnemididae". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 350: 1–237. doi:10.1206/350.1. hdl:2246/6110.
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