Chelydra

Chelydra is one of the two extant genera of the snapping turtle family, Chelydridae, the other being Macrochelys, the much larger alligator snapping turtle. The snapping turtles are native to the Americas, with Chelydra having three species, one in North America and two in Central America, one of which is also found in northwestern South America.

Chelydra

User:Moondigger · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
Snapping turtlePBDB
Sits inside
ChelydridaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Chelydridae
Life habit
aquatic, solitaryPBDB, for Chelydridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Chelydridae

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 16.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 33 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 24 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.5–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–3.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.9–3.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.4–2.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.8–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–1.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.7–1.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.1–560 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences560 ka–0 Mya — about 19 occurrences12.5 Mya11.7 ka16.8 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Chelydra on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

33 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

8 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°W

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The named rock units Chelydra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 25 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chelydra and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Chelydra and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

998 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Chelydra, 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

27 references

Each of the 33 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. 15 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 Chelydra

Credit
User:Moondigger
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
zmmu
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itChelydridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schweigger 1812