Plesiochelyidae

The Plesiochelyidae are an extinct family of turtles in the clade Thalassochelydia originally classified within the Cryptodira suborder, mostly belonging from the Jurassic period. An alternate study placed the clade Thalassochelydia in the Angolachelonia and outside the Testudines.

Plesiochelyidae

Jérémy Anquetin​, Sylvie Deschamps, Julien Claude · 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
Sits inside
ThalassochelydiaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 119.57 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 113.2 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 84 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 84 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 76 of 84 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 84 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous176–174 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences174–172 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences172–170 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences170–167 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences167–165 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences165–163 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences163–161 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences161–159 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences159–157 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences157–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–152 Mya — about 11 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 24 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 18 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 9 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 8 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 4 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 1 occurrence140–138 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences138–135 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences129–127 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences120–118 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161.5 Mya119.57 Mya176 Mya112 Mya

84 occurrences of Plesiochelyidae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

84 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

23 formations

Reuchenette — 47.22°N, 7.55°EReuchenette — 47.42°N, 7.07°EReuchenette — 47.34°N, 7.19°EReuchenette — 47.39°N, 7.01°EVillar del Arzobispo — 40.67°N, 0.88°WHorizon à Irius — 44.51°N, 1.33°EHorizon à Irius — 44.55°N, 1.52°EMarnes à Deltoideum delta — 49.51°N, 0.07°EAlcobaça — 39.70°N, 8.80°WAlcobaça — 39.55°N, 8.94°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.55°N, 1.79°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.62°N, 2.12°WHorizon à Lafauriana — 44.64°N, 1.53°EPortland Stone — 50.57°N, 2.45°WSobral — 39.08°N, 9.36°WWeald Clay — 50.96°N, 0.12°WEspichel — 39.42°N, 9.22°WSultanbobin — 41.85°N, 72.98°EBalabansai — 41.33°N, 72.25°EMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EParnac and Saint-Chamarand — 44.65°N, 1.46°EVirgulien superieur — 47.09°N, 6.86°ELorente — 37.87°N, 3.00°WNerinea limestone — 49.98°N, 18.27°EFreixial — 39.09°N, 9.41°WCabacos — 39.60°N, 8.78°WMugher Mudstone — 10.25°N, 39.00°ELourinhã — 39.28°N, 9.33°WMoina — 11.90°N, 71.74°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Plesiochelyidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plesiochelyidae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Plesiochelyidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

382 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Plesiochelyidae, 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

45 references

Each of the 84 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. 33 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 Plesiochelyidae

Credit
Jérémy Anquetin​, Sylvie Deschamps, Julien Claude
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Plesiochelyidae was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itThalassochelydia through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rütimeyer 1873