Plesiochelys

Plesiochelys is a genus of late Jurassic European and Asian turtle. The type species is Plesiochelys etalloni.

Plesiochelys

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
PlesiochelyidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 132.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 125.77 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 43 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 43 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 38 of 43 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 43 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous176–174 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences174–172 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences172–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–169 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences169–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–162 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences162–160 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 3 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 6 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 12 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 8 occurrences149–147 Mya — about 2 occurrences147–145 Mya — about 2 occurrences145–143 Mya — about 3 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 2 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences140–138 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences130–128 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161.5 Mya132.6 Mya176 Mya125 Mya

43 occurrences of Plesiochelys 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

43 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

9 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°ESobral — 39.08°N, 9.36°WWeald Clay — 50.96°N, 0.12°WBalabansai — 41.33°N, 72.25°EMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EPortland Stone — 50.57°N, 2.45°WVillar del Arzobispo — 40.67°N, 0.88°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.62°N, 2.12°WFreixial — 39.09°N, 9.41°W

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The named rock units Plesiochelys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plesiochelys and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

109 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Plesiochelys, 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

24 references

Each of the 43 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. 12 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 Plesiochelys

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

No 3D scan of Plesiochelys 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 itPlesiochelyidae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

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