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1 October 2011 Insights into the Taxonomy and Systematics of North American Eocene Soft-Shelled Turtles from a Well-Preserved Specimen
Natasha Vitek
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Abstract

A nearly complete fossil soft-shelled turtle (Trionychidae) from the Eocene Washakie Formation of Wyoming is described and identified as Oliveremys uintaensis, comb. nov. Previously known only from a single shell specimen, O. uintaensis can now be diagnosed using both skull and shell characteristics, including callosified but unsculptured xiphiplastra. “TrionyxtritorT.” franciscae, “T.” nelsoni and “T.” scutumantiquum are identified as junior synonyms of O. uintaensis. Parsimony and Bayesian analyses place O. uintaensis and all of its junior synonyms along with multiple previously scored fossil trionychid taxa. Reinterpretation of three characters within the matrix, as well as the addition of fossil taxa, resulted in novel relationships. These relationships were not recovered when only extant trionychids were included in a reinterpreted matrix or when fossil taxa were added without reinterpretation. The results indicate that the addition of fossil taxa is sometimes necessary to detect changes caused by other revisions to the character matrix.

© 2011 Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
Natasha Vitek "Insights into the Taxonomy and Systematics of North American Eocene Soft-Shelled Turtles from a Well-Preserved Specimen," Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 52(2), 189-208, (1 October 2011). https://doi.org/10.3374/014.052.0201
Received: 16 September 2010; Accepted: 3 March 2011; Published: 1 October 2011
KEYWORDS
fossils
phylogenetics
Trionychidae
Trionyx franciscae
Trionyx nelsoni
Trionyx scutumantiquum
Trionyx tritor
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