Allaeochelys

Allaeochelys is an extinct genus of Carettochelyid turtle, known from the Eocene to Miocene of Europe, Asia, North America and Africa.

Allaeochelys
Temporal range:
Allaeochelys crassesculptata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Carettochelyidae
Tribe: Allaeochelyini
Genus: Allaeochelys
Noulet, 1867
Type species
Allaeochelys parayrei
Noulet, 1867
Species

See Taxonomy section

Fossils of the species Allaeochelys crassesculpta have been found in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany in pairs fossilised in the coital position.

It is believed to be the only example in the fossil record of vertebrates mating.

Dr Walter Joyce of the University of Tübingen said that "We've demonstrated quite clearly that each pair is a male and a female, and not, for example, just two males that might have died in combat....People had long speculated they might have died while mating, but that's quite different from actually showing it."[1]

Taxonomy

After[2]

References

  1. Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News (20 June 2012). "Turtles fossilised in sex embrace". BBC News: Science and Environment. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  2. Carbot-Chanona, Gerardo; Rivera-Velázquez, Gustavo; Jiménez-Hidalgo, Eduardo; Reynoso, Víctor Hugo (December 2020). "The first Pan-Carettochelys turtle in the Neogene of the American continent and its paleobiogeographical relevance". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 104: 102925. Bibcode:2020JSAES.10402925C. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102925. S2CID 224976641.


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