Apalone

Apalone is a genus of turtles in the family Trionychidae. The three species of Apalone are native to freshwater habitats in North America; they are the only living softshell turtles from the Americas.

Apalone

LA Dawson · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
softshell turtlePBDB
Sits inside
TrionychidaePBDB
Diet
piscivore, carnivorePBDB, for Trionychidae
Life habit
aquatic, solitaryPBDB, for Trionychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Trionychidae
Environment
brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Trionychidae

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 47 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 47 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 47 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 47 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 18 of 47 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 47 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 47 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka74 Mya0 Mya

47 occurrences of Apalone 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

47 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

20 formations

Goliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.34°N, 97.96°WAlachua — 29.10°N, 82.30°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WSt. Marys — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSt. Marys — 38.35°N, 76.39°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°W"Brian Head" — 37.80°N, 111.50°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WKirkwood — 39.30°N, 75.20°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WEcor Rouge Sand — 30.70°N, 88.08°WCurré — 8.86°N, 83.08°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WOld Church — 37.63°N, 77.13°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WSt Marys — 38.16°N, 76.45°WSan Gerardo — 8.83°N, 83.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Apalone has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Apalone and its relatives

Miocene

Where Apalone and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,543 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Apalone, 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

36 references

Each of the 47 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. 24 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 content2

Picture of Apalone

Credit
LA Dawson
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Apalone ferox · pchp:7043

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

Everything alive alongside itTrionychidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1832