Khunnuchelys

Khunnuchelys is an extinct genus of trionychine turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Asia. Three species are known, K. erinhotensis, the type species, K. kizylkumensis, and K. lophorhothon. K. erinhotensis is known from the Iren Dabasu Formation in China from the late Turonian until the middle Campanian. K. kizylkumensis is known from the late Turonian Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The third species, described in 2013 by Danilov et al., is known from the early to middle Campanian aged Bostobe Formation of Kazakhstan.

Khunnuchelys

IGOR G. DANILOV, NATASHA S. VITEK, ALEXANDER O. AVERIANOV, AND VADIM N. GLINSKIY · CC BY 1.0 · 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
Sits inside
PantrionychidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Cryptodira

Time the record covers

At least 6.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 7 of 7 occurrencesLate Cretaceous94–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89.8 Mya83.6 Mya94.4 Mya71.7 Mya

7 occurrences of Khunnuchelys on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

7 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

3 formations

Bostobe — 46.57°N, 63.87°EBostobe — 49.52°N, 74.39°EBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EIren Dabasu — 43.72°N, 112.03°E

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

Khunnuchelys and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

93 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Khunnuchelys, 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

4 references

Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Khunnuchelys

Credit
IGOR G. DANILOV, NATASHA S. VITEK, ALEXANDER O. AVERIANOV, AND VADIM N. GLINSKIY
Licence
CC BY 1.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Khunnuchelys 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 itPantrionychidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brinkman et al. 1993