Elochelys
Elochelys is an extinct genus of bothremydid pleurodiran turtle that was discovered in the Campanian of Fuveau Basin, France. The genus consists solely of type species E. perfecta, though a second species was reassigned to the genus Iberoccitanemys.

Tylwyth Eldar · 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- Sits inside
- BothremydidaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Pleurodira
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB, for Pleurodira
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- freshwaterPBDB, for Pleurodira
Time the record covers
At most 12 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Elochelys 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
3 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
2 formations
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The named rock units Elochelys 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.
Elochelys and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Elochelys and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
43 taxa- Arcovenator2 sites
- Iberoccitanemys atlanticum2 sites
- Lirainosaurus astibiae2 sites
- Menarana laurasiae2 sites
- Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti2 sites
- Neosuchia2 sites
- Rhabdodon2 sites
- Abelisauridae1 site
- Acynodon iberoccitanus1 site
- Albanerpetontidae1 site
- Allodaposuchus1 site
- Amphisbaenia1 site
- Anura1 site
- Atractosteus1 site
- Azhdarcho1 site
- Caudata1 site
- Coelurosauria1 site
- Discoglossidae1 site
- Dortoka vasconica1 site
- Dromaeosauridae1 site
- Eutheria1 site
- Hadrosauridae1 site
- Helochelydra nopcsai1 site
- Herensugea caristiorum1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Elochelys, 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- A new genus of Bothremydidae (Chelonii, Pleurodira) in the Cretaceous of southwestern Europe1
- Taphonomy of the Late Cretaceous dinosaur-bearing beds of the Lano Quarry (Iberian Peninsula)1
- Turtles from the Upper Cretaceous of Lano (Iberian Peninsula)1
Each of the 3 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 Elochelys
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Tylwyth Eldar
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Elochelys”
- 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 itBothremydidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Nopsca 1931