Stupendemys

Stupendemys is an extinct genus of freshwater side-necked turtle, belonging to the family Podocnemididae. It is the largest freshwater turtle known to have existed, with a carapace over 2 meters long. Its fossils have been found in northern South America, in rocks dating from the Middle Miocene to the very start of the Pliocene, about 13 to 5 million years ago. Male specimens are known to have possessed bony horns growing from the front edges of the shell and the discovery of the fossil of a young adult shows that the carapace of these turtles flattens with age. A fossil skull described in 2021 indicates that Stupendemys was a generalist feeder.

Stupendemys

Edwin-Alberto Cadena, Andrés Link, Siobhán B. Cooke, Laura K. Stroik, Andrés F. Vanegas, MelissaTallman · CC BY 4.0 · 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
ErymnochelyinaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, carnivorePBDB, for Podocnemididae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Podocnemididae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Podocnemididae

Time the record covers

At least 3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11 Mya to 8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 13.8 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 11 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.4–9.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.0–8.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.6–8.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.0–6.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.6–6.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.2–5.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.9–4.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.5–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–3.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.7–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–2.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11 Mya8 Mya14.3 Mya2.1 Mya

12 occurrences of Stupendemys on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

12 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

4 formations

Solimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WSolimoes — 10.94°S, 69.34°WUrumaco — 11.22°N, 70.27°WSolimões — 9.39°S, 72.72°WSolimões — 8.96°S, 68.62°WLa Victoria — 3.31°N, 75.15°WLa Victoria — 3.32°N, 75.15°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Stupendemys and its relatives

Miocene

Where Stupendemys and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

108 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Stupendemys, 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

5 references

Each of the 12 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. 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 Stupendemys

Credit
Edwin-Alberto Cadena, Andrés Link, Siobhán B. Cooke, Laura K. Stroik, Andrés F. Vanegas, MelissaTallman
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Stupendemys 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 itErymnochelyinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wood 1976