Mesodermochelys

Mesodermochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtle known from the Campanian to the Maastrichtian of what today is Japan and from the Maastrichtian of Chile. One species is known, the type species M. undulatus; it was given its binomial name by Ren Hirayama and Tsutomu Chitoku in 1996. Studies of its skull indicate that it was a primitive member of the Dermochelyidae that was closely related to the Protostegidae. It has been described as the best representative of Mesozoic dermochelyids.

Mesodermochelys

ぽん吉 · 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
DermochelyidaePBDB
Diet
durophage, piscivorePBDB, for Dermochelyidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Dermochelyidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Dermochelyidae

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.

Late Cretaceous — about 13 of 13 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 1 occurrence71–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–68 Mya — about 1 occurrence68–67 Mya — about 1 occurrence67–67 Mya — about 1 occurrence67–66 Mya — about 1 occurrence66–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

13 occurrences of Mesodermochelys 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

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

5 formations

Hakobuchi — 42.86°N, 142.14°EHakobuchi — 42.78°N, 142.20°EHakobuchi — 42.80°N, 142.14°EOsoushinai — 44.71°N, 142.01°EOsoushinai — 44.69°N, 141.82°EEstratos de Quebrada Municipalidad — 33.37°S, 71.67°WKita-ama — 34.31°N, 134.91°EToriyashiro — 34.05°N, 135.22°E

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

Mesodermochelys and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Mesodermochelys and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

33 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Mesodermochelys, 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

6 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 content1

Picture of Mesodermochelys

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

No 3D scan of Mesodermochelys 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 itDermochelyidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hirayama and Chitoku 1996