The late Paleocene phosphates of the Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco have yielded the skull of a new genus and species of side-necked turtle, Phosphatochelys tedfordi. Phosphatochelys is a pelomedusoid pleurodire belonging to the Family Bothremydidae Baur, 1891, based on these characters: (1) precolumellar fossa absent, (2) condylus occipitalis consisting only of exoccipitals, (3) foramen stapedio-temporale not visible in dorsal view and very close to foramen nervi trigemini, (4) eustachian tube and stapes separated by bone, (5) incisura columellae auris closed, and (6) exoccipital contacts quadrate. Within the Bothremydidae, Phosphatochelys is a member of the group containing Azabbaremys, Taphrosphys, Nigeremys, and Arenila, because it has a dorsally arched palate and an open postorbital wall.