Primer registro de una patología en el caparazón de tortugas basales del grupo Helochelydridae en las XL Jornadas de la SEP

Otro de los trabajos presentados en las XL Jornadas de la Sociedad Española de Paleontología fue la comunicación oral de Andrea Guerrero y colaboradores, realizada en colaboración entre el Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED y la Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel. Este estudio documenta la primera patología ósea conocida en una tortuga del clado Helochelydridae, a partir de un ejemplar excepcional hallado en el yacimiento cretácico de Ariño (Teruel). El análisis detallado de la lesión, que combina observación directa y tomografía computarizada, aporta nueva información sobre el estado de salud de estos animales y su interacción con el entorno. A continuación, os dejamos el resumen correspondiente a este trabajo:

Helochelydridae was the most abundant and diverse clade of basal terrestrial turtles (stem Testudines) in the Cretaceous of both Europe and North America. Its fossil record ranges from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) to the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), being relatively well represented in the Cretaceous deposits of Spain. In particular, the Santa María Quarry (Ariño, Teruel Province) has yielded the most complete helochelydrid specimens known in Europe, providing valuable information on their morphology and diversity. Despite their abundance, many ecological aspects of this group remain unclear, especially their interactions with the environment. Palaeopathological research offers a promising approach to explore these interactions, as skeletal anomalies can reveal important information on the health, life history, and biological responses of extinct organisms. However, such studies remain scarce in basal terrestrial turtles, and no skeletal pathologies have been reported for helochelydrids until now. This study describes the first documented case of a skeletal pathology in a helochelydrid, based on specimen MAP-7828 from the lower Albian levels of the Santa María Quarry, which preserves numerous elements of the postcranial skeleton. The specimen preserves the partially articulated shell with a distinct bony lesion on the visceral surface of the left hypoplastron, at the level of the plastral bridge. The anomaly is characterized by a well-defined osseous outgrowth with a central depression. A detailed morphological description, combined with the analysis of the datasets obtained through computed tomography (CT), was conducted to assess the internal structure of the lesion and evaluate its pathological origin. The find expands the palaeopathological record of Cretaceous turtles and offers novel insights into the biology and environmental stress responses of the extinct clade Helochelydridae.

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Más información:

• Referencia: Guerrero, A., Cobos, A., Pérez-García, A. (2025) First Report of a Shell Pathology in the Clade of Basal Turtles Helochelydridae. In García-Cobeña, J., Ozkaya de Juanas, S., Romero, S. (Eds.). Libro de Resúmenes de las XL Jornadas SEP. Palaeontological Publications 8, 78.