Rhinochelys

Rhinochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtles belonging to the family Protostegidae.

Rhinochelys

Hectonichus · 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
Sits inside
ProtostegidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Chelonioidea

Time the record covers

At least 6.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 93.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 85.7 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 5 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 5 occurrencesLate Cretaceous107–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100.5 Mya93.9 Mya106.8 Mya85.2 Mya

5 occurrences of Rhinochelys 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

5 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

2 formations

Wullen — 52.06°N, 6.97°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.18°N, 0.06°E

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The named rock units Rhinochelys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhinochelys and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

19 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Rhinochelys, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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 Rhinochelys

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Rhinochelys 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 itProtostegidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1869