Ctenochelys

Ctenochelys is an extinct genus of marine turtle, which existed during the Cretaceous period, and lived in the shallow waters of the Western Interior Seaway. Its fossils have been found in the Ripley Formation and Mooreville Chalk of central Alabama, United States. It was first named by C. H. Sternberg in 1904, and contains two species, C. stenoporus and C. acris.

Ctenochelys

Internet Archive Book Images · No restrictions · 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
CtenochelyidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Cryptodira

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 83.6 Mya to 61.66 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 59.24 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 10 of 11 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 11 occurrencesPaleocene95–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences89–87 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83.6 Mya61.66 Mya94.6 Mya58.5 Mya

11 occurrences of Ctenochelys on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

11 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

5 formations

Mooreville Chalk — 32.92°N, 88.11°WMooreville Chalk — 32.86°N, 88.04°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 87.96°WNiobrara — 38.75°N, 100.21°WNiobrara — 38.95°N, 100.48°WLagerdorf — 53.33°N, 9.59°EKerteminde Marl — 55.56°N, 10.35°EMaastricht — 50.82°N, 5.69°E

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The named rock units Ctenochelys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ctenochelys and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

28 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Ctenochelys, 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

8 references

Each of the 11 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. 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 Ctenochelys

Credit
Internet Archive Book Images
Licence
No restrictions
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Ctenochelys 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 itCtenochelyidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zangerl 1953