Chelonioidea

Sea turtles, sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, and olive ridley. Five of the seven species are listed as threatened with extinction globally on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The remaining two are not considered to be threatened with extinction, one of which, the flatback turtle, is found only in the waters of Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.

Chelonioidea

Brocken Inaglory · 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
Also called
sea turtlePBDB
Sits inside
CryptodiraPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 161 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 654 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 654 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 36 of 654 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 212 of 654 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 41 of 654 occurrencesEocene — about 146 of 654 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 55 of 654 occurrencesMiocene — about 119 of 654 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 20 of 654 occurrencesPleistocene — about 11 of 654 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences163–157 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences141–135 Mya — about 3 occurrences135–129 Mya — about 4 occurrences129–124 Mya — about 1 occurrence124–118 Mya — about 3 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 2 occurrences107–101 Mya — about 18 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 15 occurrences96–90 Mya — about 20 occurrences90–84 Mya — about 18 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 45 occurrences79–73 Mya — about 46 occurrences73–67 Mya — about 56 occurrences67–62 Mya — about 31 occurrences62–56 Mya — about 23 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 35 occurrences51–45 Mya — about 30 occurrences45–39 Mya — about 39 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 44 occurrences34–28 Mya — about 29 occurrences28–22 Mya — about 26 occurrences22–17 Mya — about 24 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 55 occurrences11–5.6 Mya — about 37 occurrences5.6–0 Mya — about 46 occurrences161.5 Mya11.7 ka169 Mya0 Mya

654 occurrences of Chelonioidea on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

654 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

220 formations

Calvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.85°WCalvert — 38.53°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 37.77°N, 77.28°WCalvert — 37.78°N, 77.52°WCalvert — 38.57°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.65°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 38.18°N, 76.97°WCalvert — 38.38°N, 76.99°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.37°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.41°N, 0.91°ELondon Clay — 51.94°N, 1.27°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.30°N, 74.10°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WHornerstown — 40.13°N, 74.51°WMooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.84°N, 87.89°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.87°N, 88.04°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 32.32°N, 86.46°WMooreville Chalk — 32.92°N, 88.07°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WNiobrara — 38.77°N, 100.92°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.33°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 101.13°WChandler Bridge — 32.86°N, 80.07°WChandler Bridge — 33.01°N, 80.06°WChandler Bridge — 32.89°N, 80.00°WChandler Bridge — 32.97°N, 80.15°WToolebuc — 22.92°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 23.27°S, 140.51°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 144.20°EToolebuc — 20.44°S, 144.38°EToolebuc — 20.06°S, 141.20°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 143.60°EToolebuc — 20.63°S, 143.04°EToolebuc — 22.89°S, 139.86°ESelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WPeace River — 27.80°N, 81.98°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.81°N, 81.91°WPeace River — 27.50°N, 82.50°WHakobuchi — 42.86°N, 142.14°EHakobuchi — 42.78°N, 142.20°EHakobuchi — 42.80°N, 142.14°EAquia — 37.78°N, 77.40°WAquia — 38.45°N, 77.25°WAquia — 38.70°N, 76.99°WAquia — 38.42°N, 77.26°WAshley — 33.03°N, 80.10°WAshley — 33.27°N, 79.58°WAshley — 32.92°N, 79.95°WAshley — 32.89°N, 79.84°WAshley — 32.97°N, 80.20°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.07°N, 77.03°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WVic-Manlleu Marls — 41.99°N, 2.22°EVic-Manlleu Marls — 41.90°N, 2.22°EPierre Shale — 49.30°N, 98.31°WPierre Shale — 49.23°N, 98.28°WBearpaw Shale — 49.45°N, 112.84°WBearpaw Shale — 50.67°N, 107.43°WBearpaw Shale — 49.57°N, 113.56°WBearpaw Shale — 49.68°N, 112.83°WBearpaw Shale — 49.34°N, 110.40°WTemblor — 35.47°N, 118.91°WTemblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WLa Meseta — 64.25°S, 56.68°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.60°WBoom — 51.11°N, 4.33°EBoom — 51.09°N, 4.36°EBoom — 50.92°N, 4.47°EShorym — 43.79°N, 51.49°EShorym — 43.80°N, 51.75°EShorym — 44.26°N, 52.74°EShorym — 44.19°N, 53.02°ERybushka — 52.47°N, 44.93°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ESt. Marys — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSt. Marys — 38.35°N, 76.39°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Chelonioidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 196 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 148 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chelonioidea and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

3,622 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 511 sites for Chelonioidea, 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

335 references

Each of the 654 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. 323 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 Chelonioidea

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

No 3D scan of Chelonioidea 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 itCryptodira through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Baur 1893)