Glyptops
Extinct genus of turtles
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Glyptops is an extinct genus of pleurosternid freshwater turtle known from the Late Jurassic of North America.
| Glyptops Temporal range: | |
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| Skull and shell of Glyptops ornatus, and shell of Adocus punctatus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Pantestudines |
| Clade: | Testudinata |
| Clade: | †Paracryptodira |
| Family: | †Pleurosternidae |
| Genus: | †Glyptops Marsh, 1890 |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Taxonomy
The type species, Glyptops plicatulus, was first described as Compsemys plicatulus by Edward Drinker Cope on the basis of AMNH 6099, a partial shell from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) aged Morrison Formation of Colorado.[1] In 1890, a partial skull, YPM 1784 (described from Como Bluff, Wyoming), was named Glyptops ornatus by Othniel Charles Marsh.[2] Later, Oliver Perry Hay recognized Compsemys plicatulus and Glyptops ornatus as being from the same species, hence the new combination G. plicatulus.[3] Another Morrison species of Glyptops, G. utahensis, was described from a complete shell (CM 3412) found at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.[4] Glyptops later became a wastebasket taxon to refer to isolated shell fragments with a finely sculpted surface texture. The type of Glyptops plicatulus was later judged to be a nomen dubium, due to it lacking any diagnostic characters, and Glyptops ornatus was made to be the only valid species.[5]
The species Glytops caelatus Hay, 1908 was described from the middle Cretaceous (late Aptian-early Albian) Arundel Formation of Maryland. However, it was later dismissed as a nomen dubium based on non-diagnostic remains.[6]
Description
The skull of Glyptops ornatus exhibit adaptions likely for suction feeding.[5]
