Dorsetochelys: Difference between revisions

| regnumtaxon = [[Animal]]iaDorsetochelys

''D. bueckebergensis'' (Karl, Groning, Brauckmann, and Reich, 2012)</small>

'''''Dorsetochelys''''' is an [[extinct]] [[genus]] of [[turtle]] from the [[Early Cretaceous]] of southern England and northwestern Germany.

The type species, ''Dorsetochelys delairi'', was described on the basis of '''DORCM G.23''', a complete skull from the Early Cretaceous ([[Berriasian]]) [[Purbeck Group]] of [[Dorset]], [[England]].<ref>Evans and Kemp, 1976. A new turtle skull from the Purbeckian of England and a note on the early dichotomies of cryptodire turtles. Palaeontology, 19, 317–324.</ref> Later, a turtle skull from the vicinity of [[Como Bluff]], [[Wyoming]], was described as a new species, ''D. buzzops'', in honor of Buzz Pitman, a museum director of the Rock River Museum near Como Bluff.<ref>R. T. Bakker. 1998. Dinosaur mid-life crisis: the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition in Wyoming and Colorado. Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 14:67-77</ref> However, a cladistic analysis conducted in 2013 recovered that species as a member of [[Baenidae]], sister to ''[[Uluops]]''.<ref>D. W. Larson, N. R. Longrich, D. C. Evans and M. J. Ryan. 2013. A new species of Neurankylus from the Milk River Formation (Cretaceous: Santonian) of Alberta, Canada, and a revision of the type species N. eximius. Morphology and Evolution of Turtles 389-405.</ref>

In 2012, pleurosternid remains were described from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) [[Bückeberg Formation]] of [[Lower Saxony]], northwestern Germany, and this prompted a re-assessment of the problematic species ''"Pleurosternon" typocardium'', which had been tentatively referred to ''[[Glyptops]]'' by Milner (2004).<ref>A. R. Milner. 2004. The turtles of the Purbeck Limestone Group of Dorset, southern England. Palaeontology 47(6):1441-1467</ref> The new genus ''Ballerstedtia'' was coined for ''"P." typocardium'', and the remains from Lower Saxony were named ''B. bueckergensis''.<ref>H.-V. Karl, E. Groning, C. Brauckmann, and M. Reich. 2012. Ballerstedtia bueckebergensis, a new turtle from the Early Cretaceous Wealden facies of Germany (Testudines: Pleurosternidae). Studia Palaeocheloniologica 4:47-60.</ref> In a paper published in 2014, ''Ballerstedtia'' was synonymized with ''Dorsetochelys''.<ref>A. Perez-Garcia. 2014. Revision of the poorly known Dorsetochelys typocardium, a relatively abundant pleurosternid turtle (Paracryptodira) in the Early Cretaceous of Europe. Cretaceous Research 49:152-162.</ref>

[[Category:Late Jurassic reptiles of EuropePleurosternidae]]

[[Category:CryptodiraLate Jurassic reptiles of Europe]]

[[Category:PrehistoricFossil turtletaxa generadescribed in 1976]]