Axestemys

Axestemys is an extinct genus of softshell turtle that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Eocene in western North America and Europe.

Axestemys

NPS · 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
TrionychinaePBDB
Diet
piscivore, carnivorePBDB, for Trionychidae
Life habit
aquatic, solitaryPBDB, for Trionychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Trionychidae
Environment
brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Trionychidae

Time the record covers

At least 49 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 20.45 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 22 of 65 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 20 of 65 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 22 of 65 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 65 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 65 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 2 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 2 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 2 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 5 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 5 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 8 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 10 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 5 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 6 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 5 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences72.2 Mya23.04 Mya85 Mya19 Mya

65 occurrences of Axestemys on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

65 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

17 formations

Denver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 45.23°N, 103.21°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.59°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 45.87°N, 103.79°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WTienen — 50.42°N, 4.22°ETienen — 50.70°N, 4.98°ETienen — 50.33°N, 4.28°ETienen — 50.33°N, 4.07°EJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WJudith River — 46.28°N, 109.51°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 47.77°N, 108.95°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.84°N, 110.20°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 108.07°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WLignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ESables a Unios et Teredines — 49.03°N, 3.92°ENacimiento — 36.20°N, 107.67°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WWittering — 50.76°N, 0.86°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 46.33°N, 104.01°WDinosaur Park — 49.07°N, 110.45°WVaugirard — 48.81°N, 2.24°ELance — 43.15°N, 104.62°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Axestemys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Axestemys and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Axestemys and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

424 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 63 sites for Axestemys, 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

21 references

Each of the 65 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. 9 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 content2

Picture of Axestemys

Credit
NPS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Axestemys infernalis · ypm:vp:3755

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 itTrionychinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Hay 1899)