A new testudinoid turtle from the middle to late Eocene of Vietnam.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Testudinoidea is a major clade of turtles that has colonized different ecological environments across the globe throughout the Tertiary. Aquatic testudinoids have a particularly rich fossil record in the Tertiary of the northern hemisphere, but little is known about the evolutionary history of the group, as the phylogenetic relationships of most fossils have not been established with confidence, in part due to high levels of homoplasy and polymorphism.

Methods

We here focus on describing a sample of 30 testudinoid shells, belonging to a single population that was collected from lake sediments from the middle to late Eocene (35-39 Ma) Na Duong Formation in Vietnam. The phylogenetic placement of this new material is investigated by integrating it and 11 other specie

SUBMITTER: Garbin RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6383559 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature