Bothremydidae

Bothremydidae is an extinct family of side-necked turtles (Pleurodira) known from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. They are closely related to Podocnemididae, and are amongst the most widely distributed pleurodire groups, with their fossils having been found in Africa, India, the Middle East, Europe, North America and South America. Bothremydids were aquatic turtles with a high morphological diversity, indicative of generalist, molluscivorous, piscivorous and possibly herbivorous grazing diets, with some probably capable of suction feeding. Unlike modern pleurodires, which are exclusively freshwater, bothremydids inhabited freshwater, marine and coastal environments. Their marine habits allowed bothremydids to disperse across oceanic barriers into Europe and North America during the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). The youngest records of the group are indeterminate remains from Saudi Arabia and Oman, dating to the Miocene.

Bothremydidae

Ghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
PleurodiraPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Pleurodira
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pleurodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Pleurodira

Time the record covers

At least 80 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 5 of 246 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 182 of 246 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 35 of 246 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 24 of 246 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 246 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 1 occurrence115–112 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences112–108 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 4 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 7 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 4 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 10 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 19 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 19 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 19 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 36 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 46 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 23 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 12 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 11 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 9 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 8 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 8 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121.4 Mya41.03 Mya128 Mya32 Mya

246 occurrences of Bothremydidae 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

246 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

72 formations

Conques — 42.27°N, 0.73°EConques — 42.15°N, 1.00°WConques — 42.32°N, 0.57°EConques — 42.38°N, 0.39°EConques — 42.35°N, 0.52°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 39.98°N, 74.71°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 39.90°N, 74.82°WHornerstown — 40.30°N, 74.10°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WTar Heel — 34.57°N, 78.50°WTar Heel — 34.61°N, 78.60°WLandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°EAguja — 29.36°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.20°N, 103.60°WAguja — 29.33°N, 103.48°WAguja — 29.28°N, 103.56°WDakhla — 29.99°N, 26.54°ELa Posa — 42.27°N, 0.73°ELa Posa — 42.16°N, 0.96°ELa Posa — 42.35°N, 0.52°EMaevarano — 15.90°S, 46.58°EMaevarano — 16.12°S, 45.74°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.41°N, 0.91°EBlufftown — 32.16°N, 85.03°WBlufftown — 32.26°N, 85.27°WCouche 2 — 34.32°N, 5.85°WNew Egypt — 40.25°N, 74.12°WNew Egypt — 39.73°N, 75.16°WCerrejón — 11.14°N, 72.56°WCerrejón — 11.15°N, 72.55°WLameta — 21.18°N, 80.37°ELameta — 20.35°N, 79.05°EVillalba de la Sierra — 39.95°N, 2.02°WGafsa Phosphates — 34.33°N, 8.41°EBet Meir or Amminadav — 31.95°N, 35.26°EVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WSedano — 42.66°N, 2.63°WCsehbánya — 47.22°N, 17.60°EGrès à Reptiles — 43.35°N, 2.95°EArgilas de Aveiro — 40.63°N, 8.65°WArgilas de Aveiro — 40.20°N, 8.50°WTeberemt — 16.74°N, 0.77°ETeberemt — 16.67°N, 0.50°EAdaffa — 28.13°N, 35.28°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Bothremydidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 48 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 60 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bothremydidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,026 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 194 sites for Bothremydidae, 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

109 references

Each of the 246 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. 97 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 Bothremydidae

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bothremydidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itPleurodira through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Baur 1891)