Helochelydra

Helochelydra is an extinct genus of extinct stem turtle known from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England.

Helochelydra

DaCaTaraptor · 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
HelochelydridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 53 million years on record.

The record covers at least 137.05 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 13 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 12 of 13 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 13 occurrencesLate Cretaceous145–142 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 2 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 2 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 1 occurrence125–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–117 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137.05 Mya83.6 Mya145 Mya71 Mya

13 occurrences of Helochelydra on record, most of them in the Early 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

13 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

6 formations

Tunbridge Wells Sand — 50.91°N, 0.49°ETunbridge Wells Sand — 51.09°N, 0.17°WPinilla de los Moros — 42.15°N, 3.17°WVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WWadhurst Clay — 50.86°N, 0.60°EArcillas de Morella — 40.49°N, 0.42°EEl Castellar — 40.66°N, 0.87°W

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The named rock units Helochelydra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Helochelydra and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Helochelydra and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

106 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Helochelydra, 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

7 references

Each of the 13 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 content2

Picture of Helochelydra

Credit
DaCaTaraptor
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Helochelydra nopcsai · WMNH:P:88825

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 itHelochelydridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Nopcsa 1928