Pelusios castaneus

The West African mud turtle, also known as the West African side-necked turtle or swamp terrapin, is a species of turtle in the family Pelomedusidae. Pelusios castaneus is a freshwater species and is endemic to West and Central Africa.

Pelusios castaneus

J-Moss ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
West African mud turtlePBDB
Sits inside
PelusiosPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pelomedusidae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pelomedusidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Pelomedusidae

Time the record covers

At most 12 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesHolocene — about 2 of 2 occurrences17 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences512 ka0 Mya

2 occurrences of Pelusios castaneus on record, most of them in the Holocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

2 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.

Pelusios castaneus and its relatives

Holocene

Where Pelusios castaneus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

3 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Pelusios castaneus, 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 2 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Pelusios castaneus

Credit
J-Moss ( talk )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pelusios castaneus 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 itPelusios through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schweigger 1812