Dermochelyidae

Dermochelyidae is a family of sea turtles which has seven extinct genera and one extant genus, containing one living species, the leatherback sea turtle. The oldest fossils of the group date to the Late Cretaceous.

Dermochelyidae

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region · Public Domain · 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
leatherbackPBDB
Sits inside
ChelonioideaPBDB
Diet
durophage, piscivorePBDB
Life habit
aquaticPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 15 of 104 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 104 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 33 of 104 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 14 of 104 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 32 of 104 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 104 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 104 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 5 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 4 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 3 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 8 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 11 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 5 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 4 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 4 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 8 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

104 occurrences of Dermochelyidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

104 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

55 formations

Hakobuchi — 42.86°N, 142.14°EHakobuchi — 42.78°N, 142.20°EHakobuchi — 42.80°N, 142.14°ECalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WCalvert — 38.61°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.38°N, 76.99°WCalvert — 38.52°N, 76.51°WLa Meseta — 64.25°S, 56.68°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.60°WChandler Bridge — 32.95°N, 80.11°WChandler Bridge — 32.97°N, 80.15°WAshley — 32.89°N, 79.84°WAshley — 32.97°N, 80.20°WTemblor — 35.47°N, 118.91°WTemblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WWaihao Greensand — 44.78°S, 170.92°EGaiman — 43.30°S, 65.42°WGaiman — 43.36°S, 65.43°WGaiman — 43.55°S, 65.22°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.07°N, 77.03°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.70°WQasr el-Sagha — 29.62°N, 30.69°EBoom — 51.11°N, 4.33°EBoom — 51.09°N, 4.36°EOsoushinai — 44.71°N, 142.01°EOsoushinai — 44.69°N, 141.82°ESt. Marys — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSt. Marys — 38.35°N, 76.39°WTupelo Bay — 33.33°N, 79.67°WTupelo Bay — 33.21°N, 80.45°WGram — 55.31°N, 9.06°EAruma — 28.76°N, 43.74°EDoberg — 52.18°N, 8.61°ELangenfelde — 53.58°N, 9.94°ECapistrano — 33.48°N, 117.71°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WClinchfield — 32.91°N, 83.36°WPeace River — 27.80°N, 81.98°W

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The named rock units Dermochelyidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dermochelyidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Dermochelyidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,580 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 96 sites for Dermochelyidae, 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

67 references

Each of the 104 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. 55 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 Dermochelyidae

Credit
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dermochelyidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access 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 itChelonioidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lydekker 1889