Work

Trionychian turtles from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) Moghra Formation, Egypt, including a new species of Carettochelyidae

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Although trionychians have a rich fossil record, much of their fossil diversity is known from the Cretaceous and Paleogene, and little is known about their evolutionary history in the Neogene. We here describe cranial and shell material of trionychians from the Early Miocene Moghra Formation of Egypt that we attribute to a new carettochelyid taxon, Allaeochelys meylani sp. nov., and to the Trionyx lineage. Allaeochelys meylani sp. nov. fills a temporal gap between previously described taxa and exhibits a series of unique features, including greatly thickened cranial bones, a broad bony wall posterior to the orbit, a large fossa formed by the maxilla and premaxilla at the anterior third of the triturating surface, and a medial process on peripheral II. Allaeochelys meylani sp. nov. also documents the oldest occurrence of Carettochelyidae on the Afro-Arabian continent, while the Trionyx material reported herein provides unambiguous evidence for the presence of this lineage on the Afro-Arabian continent no later than the Early Miocene.

Source: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology

DOI: 10.1186/s13358-025-00358-5

Authors: Yann Rollot, Mohamed K. AbdelGawad, Mohamed A. Hamdan, Ahmed N. El-Barkooky, Safiya M. Hassan, Walter G. Joyce

Institutions: University of Fribourg, Cairo University, Beni-Suef University

Language: English

Topic: Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

Subfield: Paleontology

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,340

Funders: National Science Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Université de Fribourg