Material excepcional de tortugas fósiles rumanas en el Turtle Evolution Symposium 2021

Entre las investigaciones en el registro de tortugas fósiles presentadas por los miembros del Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED en el recientemente celebrado Turtle Evolution Symposium (TES 2021) se encuentra una en la que se presenta y analiza material muy bien preservado de una nueva especie de tortuga terrestre, procedente del Mioceno de Rumanía.

Su resumen es el siguiente:

Testudinidae is a successful clade with a wide global distribution. Its fossil record is known from the lower Eocene. These reptiles represent the only group of terrestrial turtles living today. The first defined testudinid was the extant Testudo graeca Linnaeus, 1758, a form of relatively small size that lives in southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The genus Testudo Linnaeus, 1758 was employed, during more than two centuries, to group almost all members of Testudinidae. However, numerous extinct and extant genera are currently known. Today, the genus Testudo is generally identified as restricted to the lineage grouping T. graeca and the taxa closely related to it, and it is characterized by the presence of a hypo-xiphiplastral hinge. It is restricted to three extant species and to scarce extinct forms, being identified since the late Miocene. All the extinct taxa are exclusively known by postcranial elements, generally restricted to shell remains, several of them being identified by the partial shell of a single individual. Abundant remains of testudinids from the upper Miocene fossil site of Crețești 1, in the Vaslui County (Moldova, eastern Romania), are presented here. They are attributable to a single representative. It corresponds to a member of Testudo, which differs from all the species defined up to now. A selection of seven well-preserved individuals is analyzed. These specimens not only preserve the shell, but also other axial and appendicular elements, some of them being articulated. Furthermore, the partial skulls and lower jaws of two of them are identified. The three-dimensional reconstruction of the cranial remains and of the neuroanatomy of this new form is presented.

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Más información:

• Referencia: Pérez-García, A., Martín-Jiménez, M., Vlachos, E. and Codrea, V. 2021. The exceptionally well-preserved fossil remains of a new species of Testudo from the Late Miocene of Romania. PE-APA 21(R2) – Book of Abstracts, R41.
• Imagen: Diapositiva correspondiente a la presentación de este trabajo.