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Stylemys (meaning "pillar turtle") is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise belonging to the order Testudines discovered in the United States. The genus lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia, based on fossil distribution. [1] The genus was first described in 1851 by Joseph Leidy. [2]
Testudinoidea is a superfamily within the suborder Cryptodira of the order Testudines. It includes the pond turtles (Family: Emydidae), Asian turtles (Family: Geoemydidae), the monotypic big-headed turtle (Family: Platysternidae), and the tortoises (Family: Testudinidae).
There are fourteen extant families of the order Testudines, an order of reptile. The testudines are some of the most ancient reptiles alive, with only the tuataras considered more primitive. There are approximately 300 extant species and 97 genera of testudines, split into two suborders: the Cryptodirans and the Pleurodirans. The distinction ...
The order has also been historically known as Chelonii (Latreille 1800) and Chelonia (Ross and Macartney 1802), [2] which are based on the Ancient Greek word χελώνη (chelone) 'tortoise'. [6] [7] Testudines is the official order name due to the principle of priority. [2] The term chelonian is used as a formal name for members of the group ...
It was first coined as the group containing turtles by Jacob Theodor Klein in 1760. In 1832-1836, Thomas Bell wrote a book describing the Testudinata, which summarizes all the world's turtles, living and extinct, illustrated by forty plates by Jane S. Bell, James de Carle Sowerby and Edward Lear. [5]
Emydidae (Latin emys (freshwater tortoise) + Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos, “appearance, resemblance”)) is a family of testudines (turtles) that includes close to 50 species in 10 genera. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Members of this family are commonly called terrapins , pond turtles , or marsh turtles . [ 1 ]
Meanwhile, pleurodires became the dominant freshwater testudines in the Cretaceous to Eocene of Europe, [7] and produced a family of marine species, the Bothremydidae. The Cryptodira suborder has four living superfamilies , the Chelonioidea (sea turtles), Testudinoidea (tortoises and pond turtles), Kinosternoidea (Central American river turtle ...
The fossil was spotted and recovered by P.Y. Heckman who then passed it on to the Smithsonian for study using paleobotanist Frank Hall Knowlton as an intermediary. Due to the nature of the matrix encasing the fossil, which was described by Oliver Perry Hay as " refractory ", only the upper surface of the carapace was excavated, leaving the ...