Glossochelys

Glossochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtles from the Pancheloniidae that has been discovered in Eocene (Ypresian) deposits in Harwich, England that was first described as a species of Lytoloma in 1842. The type species, G. planimentum, was described as a separate species in 1871 by Harry Seeley. It was possibly the same animal as Euclastes or Erquelinnesia.

Glossochelys

E.C.Woodward · 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
Sits inside
EuclastidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Chelonioidea

Time the record covers

At most 7.1 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 48.07 Mya and 41.03 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Eocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEocene48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.6 Mya40.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Glossochelys on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

1 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

Buchak — 49.53°N, 39.07°E

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The named rock units Glossochelys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Glossochelys and its relatives

Eocene

Where Glossochelys and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

51 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Glossochelys, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Glossochelys

Credit
E.C.Woodward
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Glossochelys 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 itEuclastidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1871