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- Title
Review of the Fossil Trionychidae (Testudines) from Alabama, Including the Oldest Record of Trionychid Turtles from Eastern North America.
- Authors
JASINSKI, STEVEN E.
- Abstract
Trionychid turtles are currently found throughout much of eastern North America, but their fossil record within this region has not been thoroughly documented. This study reviews previously reported trionychid fossils from Cretaceous to Pleistocene strata of Alabama and makes new additions to that list. The fossils described herein include the first trionychid fossils from the Cretaceous of Alabama and the oldest reported trionychid fossils from eastern North America. The presence of trionychids in Alabama at this time may imply that the family traversed the Western Interior Seaway before it had completely closed off. New trionychid fossil specimens are also reported from the Eocene and the late Miocene of Alabama. A late Miocene (Hemphillian) trionychid specimen, a nearly complete carapace, is here attributed to Apalone cf. A. spinifera and may represent one of the earliest records of that species known. Several Pleistocene trionychid fossils are described, a few of which are assigned to A. spinifera. These Alabama trionychid fossils, while mostly fragmentary, help in the understanding of the evolution of trionychids in the eastern United States and may have further implications for their paleobiology and the paleoecology of Alabama and eastern North America.
- Subjects
SOFT-shelled turtles; PALEONTOLOGY; FOSSILS; CRETACEOUS-Paleogene boundary; NATURAL history
- Publication
Bulletin of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, 2013, Vol 31, Issue 2, p46
- ISSN
0196-1039
- Publication type
Article