Warkalania
| Warkalania | ||||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Oligocene to early Miocene | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Warkalania | ||||||||||||
| Gaffney , Archer & White , 1992 | ||||||||||||
Warkalania carinaminor is an extinct tortoise in the Meiolaniidae family. She livedin Australiain the Oligocene and early Miocene . Her closest relatives include Meiolania , Ninjemys , Niolamia, and Crossochelys .
description
Warkalania, like all the other members of her family, was well protected with thorn-like appendages on the head and tail. In this turtle, however, these were rather shorter and smaller. Still, she couldn't duck her head because of the horns and spikes. With a body length of about one meter, Warkalania was one of the smaller representatives of her family.
Way of life
Warkalania was a harmless herbivore and plucked grass and leaves with its toothless beak. Perhaps, like the Galápagos giant tortoise, they grazed in loose, disjointed groups.
Like all turtles , Warkalania probably laid eggs. Even so, no eggs from this turtle have been found yet.
etymology
The type epithet consists of the two Latin words 'carina' and 'minor' and therefore means 'little horn'.
literature
- Eugene S. Gaffney, Michael Archer, Arthur White: Warkaiania, a New Meiolaniid Turtle from the Tertiary Riversleigh Deposits of Queensland, Australia. In: The Beagle. Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences. Vol. 9, No. 1, 1992, ISSN 0811-3653 , pp. 35-48, (PDF; 2.8 MB).