TESTUDINATA Klein, 1760

Allain, Ronan, Vullo, Romain, Rozada, Lee, Anquetin, Jérémy, Bourgeais, Renaud, Goedert, Jean, Lasseron, Maxime, Martin, Jeremy E., Pérez-García, Adán, Fabrègues, Claire Peyre De, Royo-Torres, Rafael, Augier, Dominique & Bailly, Gilles, 2022, Vertebrate paleobiodiversity of the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte (southwestern France): implications for continental faunal turnover at the J / K boundary, Geodiversitas 44 (25), pp. 683-752 : 697

TESTUDINATA Klein, 1760

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

Turtles are well represented in Angeac-Charente, notably by numerous isolated shell plates and bones of the axial and appendicular skeletons, and more rarely by articulated shell material (see Table 1 ; Fig. 35A ). Only a few pieces of skulls, including a maxillary and a mandible, have been recovered. Néraudeau et al. (2012) have previously reported the presence of three distinct turtle taxa in Angeac-Charente: a pleurosternid, a solemydid (now helochelydrid), and a third taxon characterized by shell bones without surface ornamentation ( Figs 12 ; 13 ). Since then, additional and more complete material confirms these preliminary conclusions (see below). The third taxon is now identified as a thalassochelydian.

Figures

FIG. 35. — A, Relative abundance of Angeac-Charente large vertebrate taxa based on identified macroremains collected from 2010 to 2017. White numbers indicate the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) (after Rozada et al. 2021); B, Relative abundance of Angeac-Charente taxa, based on microremains collected in 2017, by water screen-washing (diameter of mesh = 0.8 mm), at the base of the unit 3, of the R3 plot.

FIG. 12. — Helochelydrid and thalassochelydian turtle remains from Angeac-Charente: A, peripheral plate of Helochelydridae indet. in dorsal view;B, pleural plate of Helochelydridae indet. in dorsal view; C, D, right hyoplastron of Hylaeochelys belli? (Mantell, 1844) (ANG18-5915) in ventral (C) and dorsal (D) views; E, left humerus of Hylaeochelys? belli? (ANG18-5937) in ventral view; F, right humerus (ANG18-5938) in dorsal view;; G, H, Peripheral of Hylaeochelys? belli? (ANG 18-5993) in dorsal (G) and ventral (H) views. Scale bar: A, 1 cm; E-H, 2 cm; B, 3 cm; C, D, 4 cm.

FIG. 13. — Pleurosternid turtle from the Berriasian of Angeac-Charente: A, carapace of Pleurosternon bullockii (Owen, 1842) (ANG14 R-454) in dorsal view; B, plastron and right peripheral plates 1 and 2 of Pleurosternon bullockii (ANG14 R-474 & ANG15 R-1082) in ventral view. Scale bar: 10 cm.