Testudo graeca

The Greek tortoise, also known commonly as the Moorish tortoise and the spur-thighed tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is a medium-sized herbivorous testudinid, widely distributed in the Mediterranean region.

Testudo graeca

Charles J. Sharp · 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
Also called
common tortoisePBDB
Sits inside
TestudoPBDB
Diet
herbivore, herbivorePBDB, for Testudinidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Testudinidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Testudinidae

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 12 of 32 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 32 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 13 of 32 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.9–9.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.3–8.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.1–6.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.0–5.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences11.63 Mya11.7 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

32 occurrences of Testudo graeca on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

32 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

Trilophos — 40.59°N, 22.98°E

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The named rock units Testudo graeca has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Testudo graeca and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Testudo graeca and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

284 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 31 sites for Testudo graeca, 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

15 references

Each of the 32 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. 3 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 Testudo graeca

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Testudo graeca 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 itTestudo through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758