Eileanchelys

Eileanchelys waldmani was named and described by Anquetin et al. in 2009. The generic name, eilean, comes from the Scottish Gaelic word for island, and chelys, from the Greek word for turtle. The species was named in honour of Dr. Michael Waldman who found its remains, as well as the first Scottish Jurassic mammal, after rediscovering the Cladach a'Ghlinne locality.[1]

Eileanchelys is characterized by the following features: the presence of nasal; elongated postorbital skull;[2] absence of flooring of the cavum acustico-jugulare; processus interfenestralis of the opisthotic more slender than that of more basal forms but more robust than that of crown-group turtles; separate openings of the canalis cavernosum and canalis stapedio-temporalis present within the cavum acustico-jugulare; a reduced thickness of the basicranium floor comparable with that of crown-group turtles; well-developed antrum postoticum; flat and horizontal vomer that is free of contacts for most of its length except at its extremities and along a short suture with the prefrontal; absence of processus trochlearis oticum; posteroventrally open incisura columellae auris; at least eight neurals (an additional plate between neural 8 and suprapygal 1 may be a ninth neural or a supernumerary suprapygal), two broad suprapygals, and eight costals present; absence of carapacial or plastral fontanelle in adult individuals; one short but broad cervical scute present; vertebral scutes wider than pleurals; vertebral 3–4 sulcus on neural 6; reduced cleithrum present; arrow-shaped entoplastron that does not separate the epiplastra anteriorly; one pair of mesoplastra that meet medially; one small pair of extragulars present; and anal scute that does not reach the hypoplastron.[1]

Eileanchelys lived in the Kilmaluag Formation, which has a Late Bathonian age. The formation is made up entirely of mudstone, shale and some limestone, and, as many aquatic types of animals have been found in it and land vertebrates are rare, it was almost certainly marine. Therefore, Eileanchelys was most likely was an aquatic turtle,[2] swimming throughout lagoons and lakes, rather than terrestrial animal that died in a body of water. It is therefore one of the oldest, and best known, extinct aquatic turtles, and might represent a new evolutionary stage of turtle.[1]

Eileanchelys existed in the Kilmaluag Formation of the Great Estuarine Group. This formation has an abundance of tetrapod fauna, including salamanders; the choristodere Cteniogenys sp.; crocodilians; the lepidosauromorph Marmoretta sp.; various lizards; pterosaurs; dinosaurs; the synapsid Stereognathus hebridicus; and early mammals.[1]