Elseya lavarackorum

The Gulf snapping turtle or Lavaracks' turtle is a large species of freshwater turtle in the sidenecked family Chelidae. The species is endemic to northern Australia in northwest Queensland and northeast Northern Territory. The species, similar to other members of the Australian snapping turtles in genus Elseya, only comes ashore to lay eggs and bask. The Gulf snapping turtle is a herbivore and primarily consumes Pandanus and figs.

Elseya lavarackorum

Faendalimas · 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
ElseyaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Chelidae
Life habit
amphibious, solitaryPBDB, for Chelidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Chelidae

Time the record covers

At most 1.8 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 3.6 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 1 occurrencePliocene — about 1 of 1 occurrencePliocene5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.4–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.83 Mya3.1 Mya

1 occurrence of Elseya lavarackorum 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

1 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

1 formation

Tirari — 28.76°S, 138.41°E

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

Elseya lavarackorum and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Elseya lavarackorum and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Elseya lavarackorum, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Elseya lavarackorum

Credit
Faendalimas
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Elseya lavarackorum was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itElseya through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. White 1994