Cycloderma frenatum

The Zambezi flapshell turtle is a species of softshell turtle in the family Trionychidae). Within its family, C. frenatum belongs to the smaller, and exclusively Old World, subfamily Cyclanorbinae.

Cycloderma frenatum

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters · CC BY 2.0 · 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
CyclodermaPBDB
Diet
piscivore, carnivorePBDB, for Trionychidae
Life habit
aquatic, solitaryPBDB, for Trionychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Trionychidae
Environment
brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Trionychidae

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 5 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 5 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.8–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.8–6.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.4–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.8–5.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.1–4.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.8–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.1–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–3.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.333 Mya3.6 Mya12.1 Mya2.1 Mya

5 occurrences of Cycloderma frenatum on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

5 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

4 formations

Chiwondo — 10.17°S, 34.00°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°E

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The named rock units Cycloderma frenatum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Cycloderma frenatum and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Cycloderma frenatum and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

152 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Cycloderma frenatum, 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

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 Cycloderma frenatum

Credit
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cycloderma frenatum 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 itCycloderma through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Peters 1854