Podocnemididae
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Arctic turtle ( Podocnemis expansa ), the largest South American freshwater turtle . |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Podocnemididae | ||||||||||||
| Cope , 1868 |
The Podocnemididae are a family of turtles that are native to Madagascar and South America with eight recent species . However, many more species and genera are known of fossils, including from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Together with their core group representatives (epifamily Podocnemidinura), the origins of the Podocnemididae go back to the Upper Cretaceous of South America. While all recent Podocnemididae live in fresh waters, there are also marine representatives living in the sea (Untertribus Stereogenyina) among the extinct ones.
features
The Podocnemididae are typical freshwater turtles with an oval, flat shell. Its largest representative, the arraus turtle ( Podocnemis expansa ) found in the Amazon basin , is the largest South American freshwater turtle . From their closest relatives, the African Sideneck Turtles (Pelomedusidae), the Podocnemididae differ mainly by the skull morphology namely by holding a cavum pterygoidei (a gap between other tissue structures) by the sphenoid bone , the wing leg bone, the Prootic and the square leg formed and is underlaid by the wing bone and sphenoid bone. This feature occurs only in the Podocnemididae.
Systematics and tribal history
The Podocnemididae family includes only three recent genera and eight recent species:
- Genus Erymnochelys Baur, 1888
- Malagasy rail turtle ( Erymnochelys madagascariensis (Grandidier, 1867))
- Genus Peltocephalus Duméril & Bibron, 1835
- Big -headed rail turtle or Dumeril's rail turtle ( Peltocephalus dumerilianus (Schweigger, 1812))
- Genus Podocnemis Wagler, 1830
- Red-headed rail turtle ( Podocnemis erythrocephala Spix, 1824)
- Arouse turtle ( Podocnemis expansa (Schweigger, 1812))
- Smooth- edged rail turtle ( Podocnemis lewyana Duméril, 1852)
- Hump-rail turtle ( Podocnemis sextuberculata Cornalia, 1849)
- Terekay rail turtle ( Podocnemis unifilis Troschel, 1848)
- Orinoco rail turtle ( Podocnemis vogli Müller, 1935)
The extinct genera of the Podocnemididae that have only survived in fossil form are:
- Genus † Albertwoodemys
- Genus † Bairdemys
- Genus † Bauruemys
- Genus † Brontochelys
- Genus † Cambaremys
- Genus † Caninemys
- Genus † Carbonemys (the largest known tortoise of the Paleocene )
- Genus † Cerrejonemys
- Genus † Cordichelys
- Genus † Dacquemys
- Genus † Kenyemys
- Genus † Lapparentemys
- Genus † Latentemys
- Genus † Lemurchelys
- Genus † Mogharemys
- Genus † Neochelys
- Genus † Papoulemys
- Genus † Peiropemys
- Genus † Pricemys
- Genus † Roxochelys
- Genus † Shweboemys
- Genus † Stereogenys
- Genus † Stupendemys Wood, 1976 (the largest freshwater turtle in the history of the earth)
- † Stupendemys geographicus Wood, 1976
- † Stupendemys souzai Bocquentin & Melo, 2006
- Genus † Turkanemys
literature
- Eugene S. Gaffney, Peter A. Meylan, Roger C. Wood, Elwyn Simons & Diogenes De Almeida Campos: Evolution of the Side-Necked Turtles: The Family Podocnemididae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Number 350: 1-237. 2011, doi: 10.1206 / 350.1
