Chelydridae

Chelydridae is a family of turtles that has seven extinct and two extant genera. The extant genera are the snapping turtles, Chelydra and Macrochelys. Both are endemic to the Western Hemisphere. The extinct genera are Acherontemys, Chelydrops, Chelydropsis, Emarginachelys, Macrocephalochelys, Planiplastron, and Protochelydra.

Chelydridae

USFWS Mountain Prairie · 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
ChelydroideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
aquatic, solitaryPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 100 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 270 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 119 of 270 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 13 of 270 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 7 of 270 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 270 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 65 of 270 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 270 occurrencesPleistocene — about 36 of 270 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–101 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences101–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 3 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 20 occurrences80–76 Mya — about 20 occurrences76–72 Mya — about 20 occurrences72–69 Mya — about 32 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 27 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 7 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–33 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences33–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 9 occurrences22–18 Mya — about 15 occurrences18–14 Mya — about 20 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 15 occurrences11–7.2 Mya — about 7 occurrences7.2–3.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.6–0 Mya — about 47 occurrences100.5 Mya11.7 ka108 Mya0 Mya

270 occurrences of Chelydridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

270 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

48 formations

Hell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.88°N, 106.20°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.28°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 104.01°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WTudela — 42.06°N, 1.55°WTudela — 42.07°N, 1.61°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.52°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WKaiparowits — 37.42°N, 111.79°WKaiparowits — 37.72°N, 111.78°WKaiparowits — 37.75°N, 111.61°WKaiparowits — 37.63°N, 111.87°WKaiparowits — 37.84°N, 111.28°WKaiparowits — 37.30°N, 112.43°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WFort Union — 39.10°N, 106.90°WFort Union — 46.23°N, 109.81°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.46°N, 112.73°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.78°N, 82.68°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 47.82°N, 112.66°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WWapiti — 55.06°N, 119.11°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.15°N, 9.88°ESan Jose — 36.15°N, 107.74°WSan Jose — 36.14°N, 107.72°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Chelydridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 80 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chelydridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

2,782 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 247 sites for Chelydridae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

116 references

Each of the 270 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. 104 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 Chelydridae

Credit
USFWS Mountain Prairie
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Chelydridae indet. · PNRL:coll.Murs

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 itChelydroidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Swainson 1839)