Bairdemys hartsteini Gaffney and Wood, 2002

Gaffney, Eugene S., Meylan, Peter A., Wood, Roger C., Simons, Elwyn & De Almeida Campos, Diogenes, 2011, Evolution Of The Side-Necked Turtles: The Family Podocnemididae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (350), pp. 1-237 : 52

Bairdemys hartsteini Gaffney and Wood, 2002

TYPE SPECIMEN: AMNH 27222, a skull without associated mandible figured by Gaffney and Wood (2002).

TYPE LOCALITY: North side of Highway No. 2, west of Bayamon, Puerto Rico (see Gaffney and Wood, 2002: 4).

HORIZON: Cibao Formation, middle Miocene (see Gaffney and Wood, 2002: 4).

DIAGNOSIS: A species of Bairdemys differing from all other species in having a higher skull, a straight rather than convex or concave labial ridge in ventral view, and a wider distance between orbits; also differs from B. venezuelensis in having a smaller skull, a premaxillary notch, lower triturating surface convexity, shallower triturating surface concavity, and narrower posterior triturating surface width; also differs from B. sanchezi in having a slightly wider skull, a higher triturating surface convexity, a deeper triturating surface concavity, a larger and broader basisphenoid, and a less extensive cheek and temporal emargination; also differs from B. winklerae in having a broader, shorter snout, slightly wider skull, wider triturating surface, a premaxillary notch, and a narrower basisphenoid-quadrate contact.

REFERRED MATERIAL: None.

PREVIOUS WORK: Gaffney and Wood (2002), Sánchez-Villagra and Winkler (2006), and Gaffney et al. (2008).

DISCUSSION: This species is not well differentiated from B. venezuelensis , and another option for grouping the Bairdemys species would be to synonymize B. hartsteini with B. venezuelensis but to keep B. sanchezi and B. winklerae , which are more distinct. Although the size range of Urumaco skulls of B. venezuelensis has been expanded, this species continues to differ from B. venezuelensis in its smaller size.