Protostegidae

Protostegidae is a family of extinct marine turtles that lived during the Cretaceous period. The family includes some of the largest sea turtles that ever existed. The largest Archelon had a head one metre (39 in) long. Like most sea turtles, they had flattened bodies and flippers for front appendages; protostegids had minimal shells like leatherback turtles of modern times.

Protostegidae

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 2.5 · 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
ChelonioideaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Chelonioidea

Time the record covers

At least 60 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 77 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 23 of 77 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 54 of 77 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 77 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 2 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 1 occurrence131–129 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–121 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 5 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 7 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 5 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 4 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 4 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 4 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 3 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 9 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 6 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 6 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 6 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 6 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 2 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 1 occurrence67–64 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences132.6 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

77 occurrences of Protostegidae 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

77 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

28 formations

Toolebuc — 22.92°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 23.27°S, 140.51°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 144.20°EToolebuc — 20.44°S, 144.38°EToolebuc — 20.06°S, 141.20°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 143.60°EToolebuc — 20.63°S, 143.04°EToolebuc — 22.89°S, 139.86°EMooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.84°N, 87.89°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.87°N, 88.04°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 32.32°N, 86.46°WMooreville Chalk — 32.92°N, 88.07°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.33°WNiobrara — 38.77°N, 100.92°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 101.13°WPierre Shale — 43.67°N, 102.90°WPierre Shale — 43.64°N, 102.82°WPierre Shale — 43.16°N, 103.61°WPierre Shale — 47.36°N, 97.99°WRybushka — 52.47°N, 44.93°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°EMocuio — 14.27°S, 12.38°EPaja — 5.63°N, 73.58°WAustin — 29.07°N, 100.79°WRosa Blanca — 6.87°N, 73.24°WRosablanca — 6.86°N, 73.23°WRosablanca — 6.84°N, 73.23°WPierre Shale — 49.23°N, 98.28°WNiobrara — 53.17°N, 103.50°WHaslam — 49.68°N, 125.06°WPender — 49.60°N, 124.97°WTahora — 38.92°S, 176.83°EMount Laurel — 40.12°N, 74.55°WRomualdo — 7.18°S, 39.73°WBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.17°N, 103.62°WAustin Chalk — 32.58°N, 96.93°WCarlile Shale — 39.08°N, 99.24°WWullen — 52.06°N, 6.97°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.18°N, 0.06°ERedding — 40.65°N, 122.26°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Protostegidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protostegidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

377 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 70 sites for Protostegidae, 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

54 references

Each of the 77 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. 42 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 content2

Picture of Protostegidae

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Protostegidae indet. · NMP:Ob:00051

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 Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

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