Araripemydidae

Araripemydidae is a family of freshwater aquatic turtles belonging to the order Pleurodira, known from the Early Cretaceous of South America and Africa. The family contains two recognised monotypic genera, Araripemys and Taquetochelys, from the Santana Group of Brazil and the Elrhaz Formation of Niger, respectively, which date to the Aptian-Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. They are consider to be the most basal lineage within the Pelomedusoides. They are thought to have been specialised suction feeders. Laganemys was named in 2013 but was later determined to be synonymous with Taquetochelys.

Araripemydidae

Ghedoghedo · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PelomedusoidesPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Pleurodira
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pleurodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Pleurodira

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 141 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 145.06 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 17 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 14 of 17 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 17 occurrencesLate Cretaceous146–144 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 2 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 2 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 2 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 1 occurrence112–111 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences141 Mya100.5 Mya146 Mya93 Mya

17 occurrences of Araripemydidae on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

17 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Elrhaz — 16.44°N, 9.12°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EElrhaz — 16.70°N, 9.33°EKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WRomualdo — 7.18°S, 39.73°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WSousa — 6.73°S, 38.32°WGara Samani — 29.67°N, 1.92°EBaharîje — 28.33°N, 28.98°E

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The named rock units Araripemydidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Araripemydidae and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Araripemydidae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

156 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Araripemydidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

14 references

Each of the 17 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 2 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Araripemydidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Araripemydidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPelomedusoides through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Price 1973