Corsochelys
Corsochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtle that lived in the Late Cretaceous (Campanian). Zangerl (1960) named the type species, based upon remains found in Alabama within the Mooreville Chalk Formation.

Ditmars, Raymond Lee, 1876-1942 · Public Domain · via Wikidata/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
- DermochelyoidaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
- Life habit
- aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Chelonioidea
Time the record covers
At most 18 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
5 occurrences of Corsochelys on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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
5 occurrences- Late Cretaceous100%
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
5 formations
- Marshalltown Formation · Matawan Group1
- Mooreville Chalk Formation · Selma Group1
- Navesink Formation · Monmouth Group1
- Coachman Formation1
- Donoho Creek Formation · Black Creek Group1
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The named rock units Corsochelys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Corsochelys and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Corsochelys and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
126 taxa- Hadrosauridae4 sites
- Adocus beatus3 sites
- Crocodylia3 sites
- Squalicorax kaupi3 sites
- Anomoeodus phaseolus2 sites
- Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis2 sites
- Archaeolamna kopingensis2 sites
- Borealosuchus2 sites
- Brachyrhizodus wichitaensis2 sites
- Carcharias holmdelensis2 sites
- Carcharias samhammeri2 sites
- Cretalamna appendiculata2 sites
- Eusuchia2 sites
- Hybodus2 sites
- Ischyrhiza mira2 sites
- Mosasauridae2 sites
- Ornithomimosauria2 sites
- Osteopygis emarginatus2 sites
- Paralbula casei2 sites
- Plesiosauria2 sites
- Protolamna borodini2 sites
- Ptychotrygon vermiculata2 sites
- Rhombodus levis2 sites
- Saurornitholestes langstoni2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Corsochelys, 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
4 references- A Late Cretaceous dinosaur and reptile assemblage from South Carolina, USA2
- The Cretaceous/Tertiary mass extinction event in the North Atlantic coastal plain1
- Alphadon (Marsupialia) and Multituberculata (Allotheria) in the Cretaceous of eastern North America1
- The vertebrate fauna of the Selma Formation of Alabama. Part V. An advanced cheloniid sea turtle1
Each of the 5 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 Corsochelys
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Ditmars, Raymond Lee, 1876-1942
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Corsochelys was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.
MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Corsochelys”
- 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 itDermochelyoidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zangerl 1960