Sinaspideretes wimani

Sinaspideretes is an extinct genus of turtle from the Late Jurassic of China, probably from the Shaximiao Formation. It is considered the earliest and most basal representative of the Trionychia, and is possibly the oldest known member of Cryptodira. In 2013, it was proposed that this animal and the genus Yehguia are in fact one and the same.

Sinaspideretes wimani

Uncredited · 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
SinaspideretesPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Cryptodira

Time the record covers

At most 26 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 168.2 Mya and 143.1 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 1 of 2 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 2 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences168.7 Mya142.6 Mya

2 occurrences of Sinaspideretes wimani on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. 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.

Found in

1 formation

Shaximiao — 30.50°N, 105.60°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sinaspideretes wimani has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sinaspideretes wimani and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Sinaspideretes wimani and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Sinaspideretes wimani, 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

2 references

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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Sinaspideretes wimani

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sinaspideretes wimani 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 itSinaspideretes through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Young and Chow 1953