From Gaffney et al. (2002)

The Cenomanian redbeds of southern Morocco have yielded skulls of a new genus and two new species of side-necked turtles, Galianemys whitei and Galianemys emringeri. The genus is based on a series of nine well-preserved skulls and three partial skulls. Galianemys is a pelomedusoid pleurodire belonging to the family Bothremydidae Baur, 1891, because it has: (1) precolumellar fossa absent, (2) foramen stapedio-temporale facing anteriorly, (3) eustachian tube separated from stapes by bone, and (4) exoccipital-quadrate contact. Within the Bothremydidae Galianemys is best resolved as the sister group to Cearachelys because both have the jugal retracted from the orbital margin and a small, slitlike fenestra postotica. Galianemys emringeri has a deep fossa pterygoidei, ventrally exposed prootic, foramen nervi facialis and foramen nervi vidiani, a thicker labial ridge, and the jugal not exposed on the triturating surface, while Galianemys whitei has a shallow fossa pterygoidei, covered prootic and foramen nervi facialis and vidiani, a thinner labial ridge, and a jugal exposed on the triturating surface.

This specimen, a pleurodire from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Morroco, was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Gene Gaffney of the American Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin. Funding for scanning was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Rowe.

This specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert and Rich Ketcham on 2 November 2000 along the coronal axis for a total of 271 slices. Each slice is 0.227 mm thick with an interslice spacing of 0.227 mm, and field of reconstruction of 35 mm.

Literature

Gaffney, E.S., H. Tong, and P.A. Meylan. 2002. Galianemys, a New Side-Necked Turtle (Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco. American Museum Novitates 3379:1-20.

Gaffney, E. S. 1990. Comparative osteology of the Triassic turtle Proganochelys. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 194:1-263.

Gaffney, E. S. 1979. Comparative cranial morphology of recent and fossil turtles. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 164:65-376.

Gaffney, E. S. 1972. An illustrated glossary of turtle skull nomenclature. American Museum Novitates 2486:1-33.

Lapparent de Broin, F. de, and C. Werner. 1998. New late Cretaceous turtles from the western desert, Egypt. Annales de Paleontologie 84(2):131-214.

Meylan, P. A. 1996. Skeletal morphology and relationships of the early cretaceous side-necked turtle, Araripemys barretoi (Testudines: Pelomedusoides: Araripemydidae), from the Santana Formation of Brazil. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16:20-33.

Tong, T., and E. Buffetaut. 1996. A new genus and species of pleurodiran turtle from the Cretaceous of southern Morocco. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 199:133-150.

Tong, H., E. S. Gaffney, and E. Buffetaut. 1998. Foxemys, a new sidenecked turtle (Bothremydidae: Pelomedusoides) from the late Cretaceous of France. American Museum Novitates 3251:1-19.

Links

Gene Gaffney's Phylogeny of Turtles (AMNH) (requires Flash plug-in)

None available.