Fine Art

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Cladus: Archelosauria
Division: Pan-Testudines
Division: Testudinata
Ordo: Testudines
Subordo: Cryptodira
Superfamilia: Trionychoidea

Familia: Carettochelyidae
Subfamilia: Carettochelyinae
Genus: Allaeochelys
Species: †A. crassesculpta – †A. delheidi – †A. libyca – †A. lingnanica – †A. magnifica – †A. parayrei – †A. rouzilhacensis
Name

Allaeochelys Noulet, 1867
References

Joyce, W.G.; Micklich, N.; Scheyer, T.; Schaal, S. 2012: Diversity Caught in the act: the first record of copulating fossil vertebrates. [Biology Letters 2012] PDF
Alonso Santiago, L.; Alonso Andrés, L.; Jiménez Fuentes, E. Primer espaldar en conexión anatómica de Allaeochelys casasecai. Cazurra: nuevo yacimiento del Eoceno de Zamora (España). „Studia Geologica Salmanticensia”. 44 (2). S. 177-186. ISSN 0211-8327 PDF
The Paleobiology database

Allaeochelys is an extinct genus of Carettochelyid turtle, known from the Eocene to Miocene of Europe, Asia, North America and Africa.

Fossils of the species Allaeochelys crassesculpta have been found in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany in pairs fossilised in the coital position.

It is believed to be the only example in the fossil record of vertebrates mating.

Dr Walter Joyce of the University of Tübingen said that "We've demonstrated quite clearly that each pair is a male and a female, and not, for example, just two males that might have died in combat....People had long speculated they might have died while mating, but that's quite different from actually showing it."[1]
Taxonomy

After[2]

Allaeochelys crassesculpta (Harrassowitz, 1922) Messel Pit, Germany, Early Eocene
Allaeochelys delheidi (Dollo, 1886) Brussels Formation, Belgium, Zamora, Spain, Early Eocene Headon Hill Formation, England, Late Eocene (Priabonian)
Allaeochelys libyca Havlik et al., 2014, Al Wahat District, Libya, middle Miocene (Langhian)
Allaeochelys lingnanica (Young and Chow, 1962) Shaoguan, Guangdong, China early Paleogene (possibly Paleocene)
Allaeochelys magnifica (Hutchison et al., 2004) Pandaung Formation, Myanmar, Late Eocene (Bartonian)
Allaeochelys parayrei Noulet, 1867 Tarn, Toulouse, France, Late Eocene (Bartonian)
Allaeochelys liliae Carbot-Chanona et al. 2020 Mazantic Shale, Chiapas, Mexico, Early Miocene (Aquitanian)

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Allaeochelys.

Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News (20 June 2012). "Turtles fossilised in sex embrace". BBC News: Science and Environment. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
Carbot-Chanona, Gerardo; Rivera-Velázquez, Gustavo; Jiménez-Hidalgo, Eduardo; Reynoso, Víctor Hugo (December 2020). "The first Pan-Carettochelys turtle in the Neogene of the American continent and its paleobiogeographical relevance". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 104: 102925. Bibcode:2020JSAES.10402925C. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102925. S2CID 224976641.

Biology Encyclopedia

Reptiles Images

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Home - Hellenica World