Dorsetochelys
Extinct genus of turtles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dorsetochelys is an extinct genus of turtle from the Early Cretaceous of southern England and northwestern Germany.
| Dorsetochelys Temporal range: Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Pantestudines |
| Clade: | Testudinata |
| Clade: | †Paracryptodira |
| Family: | †Pleurosternidae |
| Genus: | †Dorsetochelys Evans and Kemp, 1976 |
| Species | |
|
D. delairi Evans and Kemp, 1976 (type) | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Pleurosternon typocardium Seeley, 1869 | |
Taxonomy
The type species, Dorsetochelys delairi, was described on the basis of DORCM G.23, a complete skull from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group of Dorset, England.[1] Later, a turtle skull from the vicinity of Como Bluff, Wyoming, was described as a new species, D. buzzops, in honor of Buzz Pitman, a museum director of the Rock River Museum near Como Bluff.[2] However, a cladistic analysis conducted in 2013 recovered that species as a member of Baenidae, sister to Uluops.[3]
In 2012, pleurosternid remains were described from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Bückeberg Formation of Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany, and this prompted a re-assessment of the problematic species "Pleurosternon" typocardium, which had been tentatively referred to Glyptops by Milner (2004).[4] The new genus Ballerstedtia was coined for "P." typocardium, and the remains from Lower Saxony were named B. bueckergensis.[5] In a paper published in 2014, Ballerstedtia was synonymized with Dorsetochelys.[6]
