Macrochelys

Macrochelys is a genus in the family Chelydridae. The genus was considered monospecific until a 2014 study by Travis Thomas divided it into three separate species.

Species

Currently, there are three extant species and two extinct species.

Macrochelys auffenbergi – from the middle Pliocene of Florida (extinct)

Macrochelys schmidti – from the early middle Miocene of Nebraska (extinct)

Fossil history

Unlike the family Chelydridae as a whole, the genus Macrochelys is exclusively North American. Hutchison (2008) considered genus Chelydrops to be a junior synonym of Macrochelys, and recombined its type species, Chelydrops stricta from the Miocene (early Barstovian) of Nebraska, as the (then) fourth species of Macrochelys.

References