25.7.18

Puesta al día sobre el registro de Pleurodira británico en el XVI Annual Meeting de la EAVP


Además de tortugas ibéricas, el Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED también defendió en el XVI encuentro anual de la EAVP un par de trabajos sobre tortugas de otros países. El primero de ellos correspondía al registro de Bothremydidae del Eoceno de Gran Bretaña.

El resumen es el siguiente:

The British record of Pleurodira is very limited, contrasting with that of Cryptodira. It is restricted to a few poorly known and poorly represented taxa from the lower Eocene record. Two successful lineages of Pleurodira are identified in the Eocene levels of Europe: Bothremydidae and Podocnemididae. Both clades have been identified in the lower Eocene British record.
A single specimen attributable to Podocnemididae is recognized in the British record, through a partial shell, from Bracklesham Bay (Sussex). It was attributed to the recently described littoral genus Eocenochelus. Several almost complete or partial shells of coastal bothremydid turtles have been found, since the 19th century, in the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey. Four different species were defined in the 19th century but subsequent authors indicated that all of them could represent a single form. No detailed review of these specimens has been made after the 1950s, and no photographs of any of these classic specimens had been, until now, published. The detailed study of those classic specimens is performed, and photographs and schematic drawings of all of them (except for the missing holotype) are presented here for the first time. In addition, several shells subsequently found, are also analyzed to improve the knowledge about both the shell anatomy and variability of this potential single species. Thus, the diversity of Bothremydidae in the British record is evaluated, as well as the precise systematic position of the recognized form or forms.

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