Chelonoidis chilensis
The Chaco tortoise, also known commonly as the Argentine tortoise, the Patagonian tortoise, or the southern wood tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is endemic to South America.

Arteivanna · 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- Also called
- Chaco tortoisePBDB
- Sits inside
- ChelonoidisPBDB
- Diet
- herbivore, herbivorePBDB, for Testudinidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Testudinidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Testudinidae
Time the record covers
At least 5.3 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.
4 occurrences of Chelonoidis chilensis on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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
4 occurrences- Miocene25%
- Pliocene25%
- Pleistocene25%
- Holocene25%
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
3 formations
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The named rock units Chelonoidis chilensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Found in the same rock
30 taxa- Acanthochelys cosquinensis1 site
- Anura1 site
- Aves1 site
- Canidae1 site
- Caviinae1 site
- Cervidae1 site
- Coendou magnus1 site
- Ctenomys1 site
- Dasypodidae indet.1 site
- Dolichotinae1 site
- Glyptodon reticulatus1 site
- Iguania indet.1 site
- Lagostomus maximus1 site
- Lama1 site
- Mammalia1 site
- Marmosinae1 site
- Mazama1 site
- Mollusca indet.1 site
- Mylodon darwini1 site
- Nothrotherium1 site
- Oncifelis geoffroyi1 site
- Ophidia1 site
- Phrynops1 site
- Promacrauchenia1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Chelonoidis chilensis, 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
3 references- Les tortues fossiles d'Argentine: synthese [The fossil turtles of Argentina: synthesis]2
- Tortoises and turtles from Huayquerías del Este (late Miocene–early Pliocene), Mendoza, Argentina1
- No se les escapó la tortuga. Uso antrópico de Chelonoidis chilensis en un sitio de la región chaco-santiagueña (provincia de Santiago del Estero)1
Each of the 4 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. 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 Chelonoidis chilensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Arteivanna
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Chelonoidis chilensis 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 itChelonoidis through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1870)