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Prionochelys

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prionochelys
Temporal range: Santonian–Campanian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Genus: Prionochelys
Species:
P. matutina
Binomial name
Prionochelys matutina
Zangerl, 1953

Prionochelys is an extinct genus of pancheloniid from the Mooreville Chalk and Eutaw Formations of Alabama. It consists of a single species, P. matutina.[1]

Taxonomy

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Prionochelys was originally assigned to the family Toxochelyidae.[1] A 2018 paper found it to be on the stem of Cheloniidae, the family to which most modern sea turtles belong, forming a monophyletic grouping with Ctenochelys and Peritresius.[2] In 2019, Gentry et al. assigned Prionochelys to the extinct Ctenochelyidae family. A cladogram from their analysis:[3]

Pan-Chelonioidea

References

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  1. ^ a b R, Zangerl (1953). "The vertebrate fauna of the Selma Formation of Alabama. Part 3. The turtles of the family Protostegidae. Part 4. The turtles of the family Toxochelyidae". Fieldiana Geology Memoirs. 3: 61–277.
  2. ^ Gentry, Andrew D. (2018-11-01). "Prionochelys matutina Zangerl, 1953 (Testudines: Pan-Cheloniidae) from the Late Cretaceous of the United States and the evolution of epithecal ossifications in marine turtles". PeerJ. 6: e5876. doi:10.7717/peerj.5876. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 6215699. PMID 30402356.
  3. ^ Andrew D. Gentry; Jun A. Ebersole; Caitlin R. Kiernan (2019). "Asmodochelys parhami, a new fossil marine turtle from the Campanian Demopolis Chalk and the stratigraphic congruence of competing marine turtle phylogenies". Royal Society Open Science. 6 (12): Article ID 191950. Bibcode:2019RSOS....691950G. doi:10.1098/rsos.191950. PMC 6936288. PMID 31903219.