How to translate text using browser tools
1 March 2010 New Material and a Reassessment of Soft-Shelled Turtles (Trionychidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Middle Asia and Kazakhstan
Natasha S. Vitek, Igor G. Danilov
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

In this paper we describe previously unpublished trionychid turtle material, consisting of numerous shell fragments, from two Late Cretaceous (Santonian—early Campanian) localities from Middle Asia and Kazakhstan (Central Asia in the U.S. tradition): Kansai (Tadjikistan) and Shakh-Shakh (Kazakhstan). This material can be attributed to two forms of trionychids present in both localities. One of them is the named species Trionyx riabinini Kuznetsov and Chkhikvadze, 1987, described from Shakh-Shakh. New data on its shell morphology provided by our study allow attribution to the genus Aspideretoides Gardner et al., 1995, known previously only from the Campanian—Maastrichtian of North America. The presence of this taxon in both Middle Asia and North America provides the first clear evidence for the relationship between Cretaceous Asian and North American trionychids. The second form is established as a new species, “Trionyxkansaiensis, sp. nov., with unclear systematic position within Trionychinae. We lastly present a brief review of other named taxa of Cretaceous trionychids of Middle Asia and Kazakhstan.

© 2010 by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Natasha S. Vitek and Igor G. Danilov "New Material and a Reassessment of Soft-Shelled Turtles (Trionychidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Middle Asia and Kazakhstan," Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(2), 383-393, (1 March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1080/02724631003617548
Received: 20 February 2009; Accepted: 1 May 2009; Published: 1 March 2010
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top