Testudinidae

Tortoises are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines. Like other testudines, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other members of the suborder Cryptodira, they retract their necks and heads directly backward into the shell to protect them.

Testudinidae

Childzy at en.wikipedia · 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
TestudinoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivore, herbivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 100 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 113.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 1488 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 1488 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 20 of 1488 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 115 of 1488 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 93 of 1488 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 636 of 1488 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 175 of 1488 occurrencesPleistocene — about 394 of 1488 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–104 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences104–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 3 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 16 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–50 Mya — about 9 occurrences50–46 Mya — about 11 occurrences46–42 Mya — about 26 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 22 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 33 occurrences35–31 Mya — about 45 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 28 occurrences27–23 Mya — about 27 occurrences23–19 Mya — about 64 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 120 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 185 occurrences12–7.7 Mya — about 155 occurrences7.7–3.8 Mya — about 197 occurrences3.8–0 Mya — about 538 occurrences100.5 Mya11.7 ka115 Mya0 Mya

1,488 occurrences of Testudinidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

1,488 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

255 formations

Collon Cura — 42.11°S, 70.49°WCollon Cura — 42.22°S, 70.15°WCollon Cura — 42.58°S, 70.34°WCollon Cura — 42.56°S, 69.76°WCollon Cura — 42.22°S, 70.15°WCollon Cura — 42.57°S, 70.35°WCollon Cura — 42.54°S, 69.75°WCollon Cura — 42.68°S, 69.66°WCollon Cura — 42.73°S, 69.63°WCollon Cura — 42.84°S, 69.47°WCollon Cura — 42.86°S, 69.46°WHuayquerías — 33.92°S, 68.45°WHuayquerías — 33.93°S, 68.48°WHuayquerías — 33.91°S, 68.56°WHuayquerías — 33.98°S, 68.46°WHuayquerías — 33.96°S, 68.44°WHuayquerías — 33.81°S, 68.48°WKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.26°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 4.29°N, 36.23°EKoobi Fora — 3.77°N, 36.44°EKoobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.94°N, 36.25°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EBrule — 42.86°N, 103.57°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.88°N, 104.12°WBrule — 42.90°N, 104.15°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.75°N, 102.50°WVogel River Series — 3.24°S, 35.22°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.15°N, 9.88°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.79°N, 100.07°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WChadron — 42.86°N, 103.57°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 43.78°N, 102.70°WChadron — 45.47°N, 112.62°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WOgallala — 35.68°N, 99.60°WOgallala — 35.77°N, 99.84°WOgallala — 35.79°N, 99.61°WOgallala — 35.77°N, 99.66°WOgallala — 39.80°N, 99.35°WDoumu — 30.76°N, 116.55°EMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WMonte Hermoso — 38.00°S, 61.00°WSarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WSarmiento — 43.28°S, 65.48°WSarmiento — 43.30°S, 65.42°WSarmiento — 43.36°S, 65.46°WSarmiento — 43.35°S, 65.72°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WWanghudun — 30.76°N, 116.55°EWanghudun — 31.05°N, 116.83°EWanghudun — 30.65°N, 116.57°EArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°WMarkygialos — 40.42°N, 22.61°ETunuyán — 33.85°S, 68.67°WTunuyán — 33.99°S, 68.47°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°ECalvert — 38.65°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 38.60°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.38°N, 76.99°WMehrten — 37.60°N, 120.58°WMehrten — 37.67°N, 120.66°WSolimões — 8.78°S, 68.90°WSolimões — 8.82°S, 72.82°WSolimões — 9.37°S, 69.94°WSolimões — 8.86°S, 72.77°WSolimões — 9.00°S, 72.78°WPinjor — 30.73°N, 76.78°EGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.49°N, 97.67°W

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The named rock units Testudinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 231 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 863 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Testudinidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Testudinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3,776 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1,250 sites for Testudinidae, and this reads 240 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

642 references

Each of the 1,488 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. 630 further references are not listed. 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 Testudinidae

Credit
Childzy at en.wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Testudinidae was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itTestudinoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Batsch 1788